Survey call to action on roads
FAR Northerners are fed up with the region’s unsafe roads and are demanding funds for upgrades.
An RACQ survey found Far North motorists, given a hypothetical budget of $100 million, would spend two thirds of it on improvements to local and state-controlled roads.
RACQ spokeswoman Lucinda Ross said more than 60 per cent of survey respondents were concerned about the safety of main and local roads and about half felt roads needed upgrading due to high traffic.
“Some of the most important projects they told us they want to see delivered are safety upgrades on the region’s range roads and overtaking lanes on the Bruce and Kennedy highways,” she said.
Mareeba Shire Council Mayor Tom Gilmore, when posed the same question, said a hypothetical $100 million would not be nearly enough to fix what he considered the region’s biggest problem road, the Kuranda Range road.
“Hardly a week goes by where it hasn’t closed,” he said.
“Not only that, it’s slow, dangerous when wet, and can’t take B-doubles, denying industry west of the range.
“The Atherton Tablelands, Mareeba Shire, the lower Gulf area, and the Cape peninsula: all of those areas are affected by the failure of that road and Cairns is also losing out on business opportunities there.”
Cr Gilmore said that, while he considered the Kuranda Range road the priority, there were dozens of roads in the region in need of upgrades.
Advance Cairns chief executive Nick Trompf said he would prioritise the Western Arterial road for capacity upgrades.
“The road carries 36,500 vehicles a day and is the only floodproof connection from the city to the northern beaches of Cairns and the Kuranda Range,” he said. “Every day it is in gridlock and needs urgent duplication from Redlynch out to Smithfield.”
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Pip Close said the Cairns ring road was critical.
“Completing the Peninsula Development Rd would appeal to RACQ’s drive market and help remote indigenous communities develop tourism to grow business opportunities for traditional owners,” she said.
The RACQ Red Spot Congestion Survey completed in April this year rated the Captain Cook Hwy as the worst for congestion in the region.