Fast trips to NSW closer
GOLD COAST BULLETIN April 12th/13th 2008
By Andrew MacDonald
Tweed bureau
Weather permitting, Tugun’s traffic buster will open on June 2
After more than two years of construction, and longer in planning, the Tugun Bypass will officially open to traffic on June 2 – weather permitting.
Acting Premier Paul Lucas made the announcement yesterday during a morning tour of the almost-completed 7km stretch of road.
Flanked by Main Roads Minister Warren Pitt, federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and federal MP for Richmond Justine Elliot, Mr Lucas said the four-lane, state and federally-funded $543 million stretch of road had been a long time coming.
“Many of us, myself included, have been used to, for years, sitting in traffic of up to 30 minutes in delays when we’re going through Tugun either to the southern Gold Coast or northern NSW,” he said.
“This is a congestion buster.
“For the next school holidays in Queensland and NSW this Tugun Bypass will be open for business.
“It will eliminate any traffic lights now from Gympie all the way to the border.”
He said the travel time on the bypass was likely to average five minutes.
Mr Lucas said completion of the road was a significant milestone for the Gold Coast.
“It was one of the toughest things that I had on my plate when I became transport and roads minister,” he said.
“It was hard work; we had tough meetings.
“The good news is that hard work has paid off. This job will be open at least six months ahead of schedule and it is a fantastic tribute to the workers but it won’t be open a minute too soon.”
Mr Lucas denied the project had gone over budget, saying ‘$543 million was the final cost of it, it is going in accordance with budget’.
Although recent rain has delayed some work on the project, Mr Lucas said workers had largely managed to make up the time, to be on track to open six months ahead of schedule.
“Barring any unforeseen circumstances it will be open by the second of June,” he said.
“Once you’re out of the ground and you’ve got everything hard like it is now, delays are generally for the actual time that it’s really raining. If you’ve got dirt everywhere then rain actually interferes with it for weeks.”