The Albanese government is promising to fund upgrades to the Bruce Highway in Queensland, as the 2025 federal election looms. Transport Minister Catherine King says the investment will be significant.
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00:00Today we're announcing the single biggest ever investment from a Labor government into
00:08the Bruce Highway, $7.2 billion in addition to the money that is already being invested
00:13in the Bruce Highway, some $10 billion, to really get this road up to a three star rating.
00:18At the moment there are sections of this road that remain at one and two star rating and
00:23that's the rating we use to say how safe is this road.
00:26So we know when you have grade separation, when you have barriers, when you take out
00:32some of the dangerous curves, that really does reduce the road safety risk of a road
00:37and there are sections of this road, particularly up around the Mackay end that are really still
00:42at one star and we have seen over 40 people last year lost their lives and the increase
00:47in the number of people who've lost their lives in serious injury on the Bruce Highway
00:52and this investment will go to really lifting the road safety improvement and the productivity
00:57of what is the single biggest artery right the way through Queensland.
01:01You get the biggest single road safety improvements when you increase the road from one to three
01:06stars so what that means is you're putting in a wider centre section, you're putting
01:12in shoulder sealing, you can put in more overtaking lanes so that when you do get people who are
01:17trying to overtake, you've got slower vehicles, they're not doing that in a risky way and
01:22you put more road safety barriers and so the biggest single improvement you do get in road
01:27safety is from that one to three, you do get some road safety improvement when you lift
01:33from three to four but really lifting a one star road to a three star road is what we're
01:38concentrating on.
01:39Of course there will always be more to be done but this is the single biggest contribution
01:43of any government to fixing the Bruce Highway and getting this done once and for all.