A new vision for the Bruce Highway will focus on unlocking economic growth, building flood resilience and improving safety.
As the State Government committed to increase annual funding for the Highway’s upgrades to $250 million per year from 2027, it released its priorities for the “backbone of Queensland” for the next 15 years.
The plan, created by the Bruce Highway Trust Advisory Council, was a result of customer research with the three priorities of unlocking economic growth, building flood resilience and improving safety a common thread in the findings.
The plan stated that the Bruce Highway should have the capacity to support future population growth and offer consistency and connectivity to ensure reliable freight movements with more predictable and efficient travel times.
It also called for targeted upgrades to ensure the highway was more resilient to extreme weather events and there were improved advance warning of likely flooding to allow for alternative travel arrangements to be made.
To improve safety, the plan called for work to enable the Highway to better accommodate a mix of different vehicle types, with drivers provided with a safer and more consistent driving experience along the length of the highway, including better separation of vehicles on single carriageways, safer places to pull over and rest, more opportunities to safely overtake other vehicles and advanced hazard warning signs.
The vison’s accompanying action plan detailed the following priorities:
- Improving traffic flow on the Bruce Highway on the Brisbane to Sunshine Coast link with additional capacity between Brisbane and Caboolture and six-laning from Steve Irwin Way to Johnson Road at Beerburrum.
- Duplicating priority sections of the Bruce Highway, including north of Gympie from Curra to Tiaro, at Bajool south of Rockhampton, south of Mackay and north of Townsville.
- Complementing Wide Centre Line Treatment (WCLT) with Audio-Tactile Line Marking on all remaining single carriageway sections of the highway by 2030–31 to provide a more safe and consistent journey experience from Brisbane to Cairns.
- Upgrading narrow bridges (less than 8.4m wide) to complement the application of WCLT treatment for safer and more reliable movement of freight and all road users.
- Additional overtaking lanes (new and upgraded) along the Bruce Highway.
- Additional rest areas (new and upgrades to existing facilities) at priority sites between Brisbane and Cairns as part of a whole-of-corridor fatigue management strategy.
- A major program of pavement rehabilitation and strengthening on priority locations between Brisbane and Cairns to improve ride quality and asset condition.
- Priority intersection upgrades to improve safety and travel consistency.
- Applying and updating technology, including Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), to provide customers with better advance warning and predictive information to inform their travel choices.
- Enhancing flood resilience along the highway.
Alongside the release of the 15-year Vision and Action Plans for the Bruce Highway the State Government committed to increase its annual Bruce Highway funding to $250 million per annum from 2027-28 onwards.
State Transport Minister Bart Mellish said this would “ensure the ‘backbone of Queensland’ continued to receive the necessary funding to undertake progressive upgrade works and complete the big projects that will take pressure off the Bruce”.
“Projects that support the Bruce and that help to ease congestion on our main highway are also an important part of our Bruce plan, like the $1 billion Inland Freight Route (or ‘Second Bruce’) and our investment in the Queensland Beef Corridors,” Minister Mellish said.
