Millions to get highway out of flood reach

A $ 515 MILLION project is set to markedly improve the flood immunity and safety of the Bruce Highway at the Haughton River floodplain south of Townsville.

A spokesman for contractors The Infrastructure Group, Campbell McCall, told a Townsville Industry Breakfast yesterday the existing roadway on the floodplain about 50km south of the city had a oneyear flood immunity.

This meant that on average it flooded every year for lengthy periods.

Mr McCall said work to develop about 13.5km of new roadway, including a series of new bridges and overpasses, would provide a new flood immunity of one hour every year.

That would be a good outcome, he said.

He said the stretch of highway would also be wider and safer with improvements in alignment and overpasses provided over two cane rail lines.

Mr McCall said the project would required about 20,000 cubic metres of concrete, about 765,000 cubic metres of dirt, 95,000 cubic metres of pavement, 10km of guard rail, 83km of line marking and about 51,000 tonnes of asphalt.

“We are currently in design phase. We are concentrating on hydrology design,” Mr McCall said. “Once we lock that down, we can start ( preparing) design packages.”

He said they would go to the market for some early procurement and long lead- time procurement later this year.

Construction could start by the end of the year but he said it was more likely to occur after the wet season next year.

As part of design, some early work such as geotechnical investigations and surveys would be needed, for which they would go to the market shortly.

Mr McCall said they would have about 40 staff and a peak of between 150 to 200 people on site. “My goal will be to get as many people from the Burdekin and Townsville involved in this project as possible,” he said.

The Federal Government has committed up to $ 411.4 million with the Queensland Government contributing $ 102.9 million.