IT’S BEEN A LONG ROAD BUT SHOULD BE WORTH IT

THE front page on July 12, 2017, said it all: “WE’VE GOT IT. “Years of driver frustration will be replaced with cheers when a new bypass to the Northern Beaches is announced today. The 3.8km time and life saver will take four years to construct and shave up to 75 per cent off peak-hour travel from the city.”

The image in the background was of a two-lane highway heading toward sunshine.

Four years later and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday returned to Cairns with Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey to formally open the Smithfield bypass with longtime campaigner and Barron River MP Craig Crawford.

For years motorists on the northside and users of the Kuranda Range pleaded for a solution to logjams at the Smithfield and Caravonica roundabouts.

The Cairns Post with advocacy group Advance Cairns and other local leaders had campaigned hard for funding for the much-needed project in the lead-up to the state budget.

And when it wasn’t there we stepped it up a notch.

Sustained pressure was applied and when the Premier brought her Cabinet to Cairns in July that year it was music to my ears when at a meeting with the Cairns Post she revealed the city would get the bypass.

How differently the world looks now to July 2017. Jackie Trad was deputy, Curtis Pitt was the treasurer and Kate Jones was an education minister.

Now both Ms Trad and Ms Jones are no longer in politics, Mr Pitt is Speaker of the House and motorists have a new bypass.

With major upgrades on the south and northside now completed, Cairns’ road network has certainly come a long way.

Jennifer Spilsbury Editor