"Only a Coalition Government will deliver the Toowoomba Bypass"

The Toowoomba Bypass is the most important economic project for our region.

The Coalition has guaranteed that work would begin on the Toowoomba Bypass in its first term if elected to Government.

Funding of $700 million has been allocated over a four year period and work on the Toowoomba Bypass would start in 2011.

The Coalition is also committed to working with industry to deliver the remaining cost of the $2 billion project, with a goal of having the road completed by 2017.

In 2007 the Coalition Government announced initial funding of $700 million to begin work on the Bypass.

The preparation work was already well underway.  The Howard Government had spent more than $43 million drilling a pilot tunnel near My Kynoch to provide scientific information about building the road, and in land acquisitions along the route.

In contrast, the Labor Government has repeatedly ignored the need for the Bypass.

It took the deliberate decision to cut this funding.

Construction would be underway now had the Government honoured the Coalition’s budgeted funding schedule.

Julia Gillard must explain why the Labor Government ripped away that funding and why it has continued to ignore the need for the Bypass.

The Federal Coalition’s belief in investing in productivity-building road and rail infrastructure like the Toowoomba Bypass, as part of a responsible plan for Australia’s future, is as strong as ever.

About the Bypass:

• It is a large project covering 42 kilometres of highway.
• Traffic estimates show that each day around 4,000 trucks and heavy vehicles use the current Toowoomba range crossing. They make up 20 per cent of the 20,000 vehicles that use the road daily.
• That’s 4,000 heavy vehicles that not only have to crawl up or down the steep gradient of the current range crossing, but those trucks also make their way through the main streets of Toowoomba – sharing the roads with workers, parents, students and commuters.
• The construction of the Toowoomba Bypass would take those trucks out of the city, by providing an alternative route for freight and heavy transport.
• The existing range highway would still be open, but the Bypass would provide a safer alternative for truck drivers to make the descent on a new crossing that wouldn’t be as steep as the current road.
• But the benefits of the Bypass wouldn’t be limited to Toowoomba.
• The South West region will be one of Queensland’s fastest growing areas in the decades ahead.
• This will lead to extra heavy vehicles on the road and enhance the need for a more efficient freight corridor from the west of the state through to the Port of Brisbane.