Highway upgrade is a fantastic promise
IT was my good fortune last year to travel extensively in California.
As I gazed from the bus when we travelled through extensive unoccupied lands I was impressed to see a dual carriageway facilitating travel in either direction and each carriageway separated by a 10m median strip.
My thoughts turned to the skinny old Bruce Highway along which I have travelled many, many times, even ages ago when parts of it were only gravel.
My thoughts were that we could never afford such luxury and safety of travel back home.
Surprise! Surprise! The LNP has announced its plans to commence the formidable task of duplicating this arterial highway.
This will certainly be a tedious undertaking but drivers who have been boxed in behind caravans or interstate transport trailers will surely applaud the news.
Travel times will be reduced and the disproportionate fatalities resulting from numerous traffic accidents will benefit communities along the way.
Another surprise for me was to read in Tuesday’s Townsville Bulletin where MP Robbie Katter, worries that the North might be forgotten. This is only some desperate political hypocrisy as KAP is forever bleating about things for the North. Unless you lived in a cave you might not see that such roadworks would be of inestimable benefit to the tourist industry where North Queensland has so much to offer. Accommodation, petrol stations and general commerce would be among the beneficiaries with increased tourism.
Perhaps Mr Katter should take a drive along the highway and he’d soon realise the difference between the highway and the luxury of his plane travel.
KEVIN CUTLER, Kelso.