Northern Australia Roads Program is a suite of projects designed to deliver upgrades to high priority roads in northern Australia. In 2016 the Australian Government announced 19 projects to be funded under this program, and in 2020 another was added. This program is separate to the
Northern Australia Beef Roads Program
Northern Australia Beef Roads Program is a suite of projects designed to deliver targeted upgrades to key roads for transporting cattle in northern Australia. In 2016 the Australian Government announced 18 projects to be funded under this program. ...
, also announced in 2016, which contains a further 18 projects.
Funding and program status
Funding by the Australian Government is up to 80% of total costs, with the remainder being met by state, territory and local governments. The initial funding allocation by the Australian Government was $600 million, most of which has now (in March 2022) been expended on the identified projects, most of which have been completed or are nearing completion.
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In the 2022 Federal Budget a further $380 million over four years was allocated for projects yet to be determined.][
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Type of work
The work undertaken includes bridge and culvert construction, road widening, sealing, overtaking lanes and pavement renewal.[
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Projects
The roads involved in the 20 projects are listed below.[
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Queensland
* Flinders Highway (2 projects)
* Capricorn Highway
The Capricorn Highway is located in Central Queensland, Australia, and links the city of Rockhampton with western Queensland. The highway is long, and joins the Landsborough Highway at Barcaldine. Formerly National Route 66, Queensland began ...
* Kennedy Developmental Road (2 projects)
* Barkly Highway
The Barkly Highway is a national highway of both Queensland and the Northern Territory in Australia. It is the only sealed road between Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Description
The highway runs between Cloncurry and the junction w ...
* Bowen Developmental Road
* Landsborough Highway
Landsborough Highway is a highway in western Queensland, Australia, running in the northwest–southeast direction from Morven to Cloncurry. The Landsborough Highway runs through vast tracts of land that was once occupied by William Landsboroug ...
* Peak Downs Highway
The Peak Downs Highway links the towns of Mackay and Clermont in the Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australi ...
* Bajool-Port Alma Road,
Northern Territory
* Plenty Highway
* Tjukaruru Road
The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian outback highway that runs from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory (near Uluru / Ayers Rock). It passes through a number of small communities on the way.
History
The ...
* Keep River Plains Road
* Arnhem Highway
* Buntine Highway
The Buntine Highway is a 581-kilometre highway in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It runs from the Victoria Highway via Top Springs and Kalkarindji and then to Nicholson, Western Australia. The section from the Victoria Highway t ...
Western Australia
* Great Northern Highway
Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost , it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the ...
(3 projects)
* Marble Bar Road
Main Roads Western Australia controls the major roads in the state's Pilbara region. There are two main highways in the region: Great Northern Highway, which travels north through the region to Port Hedland and then north-west along the coast, a ...
* Broome-Cape Leveque Road
The Cape Leveque Road is a regional Western Australian road that runs through pindan woodland for between Broome and Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsula.
The southernmost section was narrow-sealed, the northernmost section (between sou ...
Project details
Where there is an article about a road the project details have been included therein. For roads with no article the details are shown below.
Bajool-Port Alma Road
The project for pavement widening and safety upgrades to the port access road was completed by January 2022 at a total cost of $14.5 million.
Keep River Plains Road
The project to upgrade and seal sections of the road and construct two new bridges over Keep River and Sandy Creek was completed in late 2020 at a total cost of $87.3 million.
White Paper on Developing Northern Australia
The Northern Australia Roads Program is part of the ''White Paper on Developing Northern Australia'', a $600 million commitment to upgrade high priority roads in northern Australia.
Parliamentary report
The Parliament of Australia has produced a report on transport infrastructure that includes extensive details of the Northern Australia Roads Program, among others.
Press recognition
The ''Roads and Infrastructure'' magazine has published details of the progress of a number of projects under the Northern Australia Roads Program.
Progress reporting
As Queensland projects under the Northern Australia Roads Program reach significant milestones these are reported on the Department of Transport and Main Roads website.
Completed Queensland projects
See also
* Northern Australia
The unofficial geographic term Northern Australia includes those parts of Queensland and Western Australia north of latitude 26° and all of the Northern Territory. Those local government areas of Western Australia and Queensland that lie p ...
* Road transport in Australia
Road transport is an element of the Australian transport network, and contributes to the Australian economy. Australia relies heavily on road transport due to Australia's large area and low population density in considerable parts of the coun ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Our North, Our Future: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia
Northern Australia
Roads in Australia
Lists of roads in Australia