Construction companies interested in undertaking the work necessary to improve safety along the Gounyan Curves section of the Barton Highway have until 14 July to submit their best bid under the tender process being managed by the RTA.

The project will involve straightening and flattening 4.5 kilometres of the Barton Highway as well as installing hazard protections, laying sealed shoulders and building a new southbound overtaking lane. See attached map.

We expected to have workers and their equipment on site by the end of this year.

Once this work is completed in late 2011, the 7,000 motorists and truck drivers that use this section of Highway daily will experience quicker and safer driving conditions, with the result over time being fewer accidents and less loss of life.

More project information can be found on the RTA website: www.rta.gov.au.

This multi million dollar contract is part of the Gillard Labor Government’s $20 million Barton Highway Safety Package which also funded the recently completed realignment and upgrade of the road at Capricorn Corner, 28 kilometres north of Canberra.

Both projects are exactly what our Nation Building Program is all about – putting Australians to work modernising the road infrastructure vital to our nation’s long term economic prosperity.

In less than three years, this Labor Government has more than doubled the Federal roads budget to $27.7 billion over six years, with three quarters of this funding earmarked for projects in rural and regional communities. We’ve honoured every commitment we gave in Opposition and begun reversing a decade of underinvestment.