Work will begin next year on new or upgraded parking bays on the Lasseter and Plenty highways and Tanami Road
Work will begin next year on new or upgraded parking bays on the Lasseter and Plenty highways and the Tanami Road in the Northern Territory.
The two existing unsealed parking bays on the Lasseter Highway will be upgraded, along with the bays near the Kintore Road intersection on the Tanami Road.
The Plenty Highway will receive a new truck parking bay near the Arapunya Road intersection, marking the first formal bay on the route.
“The bays will improve the efficiency of the trucking industry as they will provide a safe parking facility at regular intervals and reduce driver fatigue,” Territory Transport Minister Peter Styles says.
“The work will involve construction of acceleration and deceleration lanes, entry and exit to the parking bay, sealing work, improvement of drainage and installation of signage. The parking bays will be 120m long and will see up to six road trains at a time.”
Styles says the bays are located on routes linking the NT to Yulara, Queensland and Western Australia.
“The Lasseter Highway is a major freight link to Yulara, Docker River and Western Australia and services five major communities in the NT and WA, as well as three stations,” he says.
“As there are no existing formal truck bays on the Plenty Highway, drivers currently have to travel 750km with no rest stop for heavy vehicles except where they may stop at the side of a road.
“The Tanami Road is frequently used by heavy vehicles travelling west through to Kintore and gold mines in Western Australia, and by heavy vehicles servicing Territory communities Papunya and Yuendumu.”