Brisbane residents are invited to the community open day being held this Sunday to mark and celebrate the completion of work on the $824 million upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway between Wacol and Darra.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland Main Roads Minister Craig Wallace will be attending and taking part in the official commissioning of this new, six lane section of motorway.

“I would encourage local residents to join us to celebrate this significant milestone in our $2.5 billion upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway, one of the biggest road projects currently underway anywhere in the country,” said Mr Albanese.

“Sunday’s celebrations will be particularly enjoyable given this extensive upgrade has been completed some nine months ahead schedule – a tribute to the skills and professionalism of the thousands of workers involved in rebuilding this vital piece of road infrastructure.”

The community open day will be held this Sunday (18 April) between 10am and 1pm along the Ipswich Road Service Road – see attached map. There will activities for the whole family, including a variety of educational displays, rock climbing, face painting and live entertainment.

Mr Wallace said the community open day will be a great opportunity to see the large construction project up close.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the local community for their patience and cooperation while we’ve been working hard to deliver this important congestion-busting road project as quickly as possible,” said Mr Wallace.

“From the start of planning to the end of construction, we’ve sought to keep the local community in the loop and updated on the project’s progress.”

For more details about the open day go to www.mainroads.qld.gov.au/wacol2darra.

The upgrade of the entire Motorway between Darra to Dinmore is expected to be completed by 2012, helping to curb growing congestion and improve the movement of freight across south-east Queensland.