POPULAR WORDS

A key road freight route upgrade in northern Queensland will be fast-tracked with extra funding to account for growing truck volumes.

The Bligh Government’s $10 million road-widening project between Hervey’s Range Road and Greenvale will be accelerated to improve the 12km stretch of single-lane bitumen to two sealed lanes with sealed shoulders.

The stretch of road, used by road trains in the State’s far-north, is located between Charters Towers and Mount Garnet.

“Because of the growing economic importance if this road and the volume of trucks carrying ore along it, works were necessary,” a spokesperson for Minister for Roads Warren Pitt says.

Pitt announced the decision earlier today, calling it a “key north-south freight route” of economic significance.

"The road has extensive sections of narrow single-lane bitumen and currently services a wide mix of small vehicles, tourist traffic, freight vehicles and road trains transporting cattle and general goods,” Pitt says.

He says the route is also an alternative between Townsville and Cairns when the coastal highway is flooded during the wet season.

The funding will increase the Government’s five-year funding package to $65 million for the road, which is comprised of sections of the Gregory and Kennedy developmental roads and the Kennedy Highway.