The next installment of projects to be rolled out as part of the record capital works program now well underway up and down the Queensland coast has been approved and once completed, will go some way to making the Bruce Highway safer.

Firstly, Mackay’s busy Showgrounds Intersection between the Bruce Highway, Shakespeare Street and Gordon Street – the scene of more than 130 accidents over the past decade – will be upgraded with additional lanes and new traffic lights.

Preconstruction activities on this project are already underway.

Secondly, we will upgrade intersections, erect guardrails, install traffic lights, construct new turning lanes and widen the road at those locations between Sarina and Cairns where accidents have regularly occurred in the past.

Details of all the latest projects are outlined in the attachments.

Funding for these works – $26 million – will come from the Gillard Labor Government’s Bruce Highway Safety Package, the first ever Federal program dedicated to fixing black spots, providing more overtaking opportunities and improving driving conditions along this critical highway.

Already the Package is:

• Installing 50 new overtaking lanes;


• Fixing over 80 dangerous black spots between Caboolture and Cairns;


• Building some 25 new rest areas and stopping places as well as upgrading a significant number of existing rest areas;


• Laying audible edge line markings.

All up, we’re currently investing $2.8 billion over seven years – or more than twice what the former Howard Government spent in about half the time – to build a better, safer Bruce Highway, one of Australia’s longest and most important roads used by up to 170,000 vehicles each and every day.

Bruce Highway Safety Package (Sarina to Cairns):

Black Spots projects

Bruce Highway - Sarina to Cairns - Blackspots