Bruce Highway—Cooroy to Curra

This project involved a 62km realignment and upgrade of the Bruce Highway to 4 lanes between Cooroy and Curra.

Due to the scale of the upgrade and understanding that it would eventually bypass the city of Gympie, a strategic planning phase occurred between 2004 to 2008 where community engagement played a vital part in the development of the corridor for the Cooroy to Curra program.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) undertook extensive engagement with the local community and key stakeholders that informed the location and key features of the new section of highway. The proposed 62km corridor was released in June 2008.

For construction purposes the Cooroy to Curra program was split into four sections (A, B, C and D) and the department progressively delivered these projects over 15 years.

Benefits

  • Increases traffic flow
  • Improves safety
  • Increases capacity
  • Improves flood immunity
  • Reduces travel time

Key features

This program of upgrades has improved safety, flood resilience and capacity and separated long distance traffic from local traffic to allow the highway to function as a high-speed, high-volume corridor.

Funding

Section A: construction $490 million (50:50 Australian Government and Queensland Government funding split) Section B: construction $513 million (80:20 Australian Government and Queensland Government funding split) Section C: construction $384.24 million (80:20 Australian Government and Queensland Government funding split) Section D: construction $1.162 billion (80:20 Australian Government and Queensland Government funding split)

Total investment
$2.549 billion

Current status

Section B between Federal and Traveston – Major construction started on in September 2009 and the new section of the highway was opened to traffic in December 2012.

Section A between Cooroy and Federal – Work started in July 2013 and was completed in May 2017.

Section C between Traveston and Woondum – Construction started in early 2016 and was completed in February 2018.

Section D (Gympie Bypass) between Woondum and Curra – Construction began in October 2020 and was completed in October 2024.

Environment

View the Bruce Highway—Cooroy to Curra Environmental documents.