Bajool - Port Alma Road, pavement widening and improve safety
Pavement widening and safety works on the Bajool-Port Alma Road will improve the productivity, resilience and safety of the Port Alma connection to the Bruce Highway.
The project will upgrade Bajool – Port Alma Road, a key freight route to the south-east of Rockhampton, delivering widening and safety works.
The road services the Port of Gladstone and is part of the Queensland Key Freight Route Network that supports developments in the Bowen and Galilee Basins.
Bajool – Port Alma Road is also a HAZMAT Class 1 explosive freight and ammonium nitrate route.
Upgrading this road will improve safety and productivity, especially for the heavy vehicles that regularly use this route.
Benefits
- Improves safety
- Contributes to regional growth
- Better road access
- Increases capacity
- Improves network efficiency
- Reduces maintenance
- Improves ride quality
- Reduces travel time
Key features
- Widening the pavement width
- Increasing accessibility by removing and undergrounding 12km of overhead powerlines adjacent to the road.
- Improving safety by adjusting road alignment and removing roadside hazards.
Funding
The project is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Northern Australian Roads Program.
Investment ID 318028
- Total investment
- $14.5 million
- Australian Government
- $11.6 million
- Queensland Government
- $2.9 million
Construction works will be undertaken between late April to late- August to avoid the breeding season of the Eastern Curlew and Yellow Chat bird species. These protected birds have overlapping migratory periods through the wetlands of this area.
Adaptive management and monitoring of potential impacts during the construction period will ensure that residual impacts are appropriately minimised.
Current status
Construction has been suspended until April 2022 to comply with environmental conditioning to accommodate the breeding season of migrating bird species.
