Queensland drivers are hopeful headaches and honking horns on a notoriously busy stretch of the Bruce Highway will be a thing of the past as the long-awaited Gympie Bypass opens.
It is the fourth and final stage of 62 kilometres of upgrades to the Bruce Highway , which began in 2009.Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien says the next challenge is advocating for more safety upgrades to the highway further north.A notorious section of the Bruce Highway has been bypassed overnight with the long-awaited opening on a $1.2-billion project north of Brisbane.
Gympie Chamber of Commerce president Martin Muller said while there was some concern about diminished trade, the feedback from businesses was mostly positive.'Magic run'"It's brilliant bypassing all those traffic lights," he told the ABC.Crystal Harris's son travelled on the bypass in the early hours of the morning and took 30 minutes off his travel time.Ben Quin lives south of Gympie and noticed less traffic on the Old Bruce Highway this morning.
"It's going to take a lot of traffic congestion out of Gympie itself, mostly heavy haulage," he said."It is wonderful to see motorists will now be able to reap benefits of a completed Gympie Bypass," he said."There are economic benefits, there are social benefits, but the biggest one is road safety," he said.
But he said the next challenge was advocating for more safety upgrades north along the Bruce Highway. The $1.2 billion project, jointly funded by the Queensland and federal governments, is the fourth and final section of the 62-kilometre upgrade from Cooroy, on the Sunshine Coast, to Curra, north of Gympie.The bypass was funded through almost $930 million from the federal government and more than $232 million from the Queensland government.Photo shows An audience of hundreds of people in front of a stage with shining lights and two screens.With the PM's $4.
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