A divided highway

Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese are at loggerheards over the future of the Pacific Highway.

Poll

Do you think the duplication of the Pacific Hwy will be completed by 2016?

This poll ended on 18 February 2012.

Yes

10%

No

89%

This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

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TO the politicians it's the greatest road project in Australian history, yet a frustrated and forlorn public can count more lives lost than kilometres laid.

Despite the hard yards paved by construction crews the Pacific Highway is still a political travesty for motorists.

Overnight as both the State and Federal parliaments heard the latest timetable for project completion, the grim reality amid all the political bickering was contained in just two statistics.  

In his detailed progress report, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that: "Over the last 20 years (1990-2010) some 809 people have lost their lives on the Pacific Highway." 

Detailing the construction projects at hand, he revealed the hard truth that: "a fully duplicated Pacific Highway will be 664 kilometres long."

Even still the greatest hope lies in the progress.

"Right now over 1,600 construction workers are on-site upgrading and duplicating the highway," Mr Albanese said.

He said with the Gillard Government's commitment of $4.1 billion added to the O'Farrell Government's pledge of $1 billion, 70 per cent of the upgrade would be finished by mid 2014.

Yet as is the way in politics, achievements and current upgrades were undercut by political barbs fired between Mr Albanese and Cowper and Coffs Harbour MPs Luke Hartsuyker and Andrew Fraser.

From State Parliament, Mr Fraser said: "the public had lost faith in the completion timetable of 2016, as funding ceased in 2014.

"Mr Albanese is determined to continue partisan politics on this national transport route despite the fact that the Federal Government has far greater funding resources than the NSW Government," Mr Fraser said.

Mr Hartsuyker reiterated that the Warrell Creek to Urunga upgrade - identified as the worst highway section by an NRMA survey - must be a funding priority.

"In my view, road safety must be the most important consideration when prioritising, which projects receive funding, and there is no doubt that Warrell Creek to Urunga is the biggest blackspot on the Pacific Highway," Mr Hartsuyker said.

The three key reasons he gave were that 27 people have died on the section over the past five years, the Macksville Bridge is too narrow for trucks and bus loads of school children travel it daily.

Mr Fraser used his speech to pay tribute to highway campaigners such as Doctors for a Safer Pacific Highway founder Dr Ray Jones and called for immediate bi-partisan action.  

"In the interim I have called for all black spots on the Pacific Highway to be upgraded so that accidents such as the one at Urunga are minimised until such time as a dual carriageway is completed," he said.

Mr Albanese labelled the full duplication, 'the most complex and expensive road project in the nation's history,' and laid out the figures, noting at length the Howard Government's previous commitments.

NATION BUILDING PROGRAM: PACIFIC HIGHWAY DUPLICATION

PAST FUNDING (1996/97 - 2007/08)

NSW Labor Government:               $2.5 billion

Howard Coalition Government:     $1.3 billion

CURRENT FUNDING (2008/09 - 2014/15)

 NSW Government:                        $1 billion

Federal Labor Government:          $4.1 billion

PROPORTION DUPLICATED
[Based on funding already committed]

1996:                       10 per cent

2007:                       40 per cent

NOW:                       52 per cent

By mid-2014:           About 70 per cent