Kuranda Range Road - Limited Upgrade Option

The state governemnt has never even considered a limited but final upgrade instead of a 4-Lane-Highway. Department of Main Road now dismisses this option because “no lesser upgrade would meet the transport efficiency, environmental and safety objectives of the project”.

However it is obvious that a limited upgrade can achieve most of those objectives (except B-doubles) at a fraction of the cost and time required for a full 4-Lane-Highway and without the many significant negative impacts.

In the image below the existing overtaking lanes are marked in red,

Suggested four lane section, easily constructible and allowing overtaking in both directions, are marked in yellow

Suggested wildlife underpasses, some or all of which could also provide for extra overtaking lanes, are marked in blue

Limited upgrade option vs. 4-Lane-Highway:

• capacity would at best be half of the 4-Lane-Highway (impending oil crisis and loss of tourism might not require any higher capacity than that anyway)

• costs are probably only 10-20% of full 4-Lane-Highway

• can be finished in less than five years rather than having a 15-20 year construction site on our main arterial road

• largely preserves 'tunnel through green rainforest' tourist experience

• significantly lower negative impacts on regional economy and ecology

• no B-double capacity (seen as a positive impact by all other road users and Cairns residents)

• would not allow for 50,000 people in Kuranda area (this is seen as a positive by most Kuranda residents and the highly diverse wildlife of the area, Mareeba could accommodate)

If higher capacity is needed in future, a rail tunnel with drive on/off carriages (even for B-doubles) can be built from Whiterock straight towards Mareeba (see Southern Rail Tunnel display)

see www.takesteps.org for more details B2f2_v1