Newsroom

January 25, 2022

KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, says engineering planning and construction of the Bridle Track Tunnel should be fast-tracked immediately following an announcement from the State Government that the Barron River Bridge at Kuranda will be down to one lane again for the next three months for further testing.

“Who is running the show in the Labor State Government? One minute the bridge isn’t safe, then they say it is safe, and now they’re not sure again and are doing more testing,” Mr Katter said.

“One thing for certain is that we need to build the Bridle Track Tunnel now.

“We’re well into the second year of the Barron River Bridge being a liability, causing major headaches for motorists, tourism operators and businesses, and the State Government has done nothing except sit on their hands. They have had enough time to have drawn up the engineering plans for the Bridle Track Tunnel and would be construction ready.

“The Bridle Track involves 16 kilometres of road from the Davies Creek turn off to the tunnel entrance, costing $32m ($2m a km is generous), and a 1-2km tunnel through the range costing $600m. Coming out of the tunnel on the Cairns southern suburbs side, there will be an overpass onto the Bruce Highway costing $400m. So, there’s no way the total project will cost any more than $1.5b.”

Mr Katter said Southeast Qld had great expertise in tunnel building and should send up their resources to Far North Qld.

“The equipment, contractors and expertise for the Cross River Rail Tunnel in Brisbane are all going to be available very shortly and it would be tremendous if they could start work up here immediately on the Bridle Track Tunnel,” he said.

“The problem is we are dealing with ignoramuses here. The state member for Barron River has said they’re rebuilding the Barron River Bridge which will cost $600m and we will be stuck with the same slow and windy one hour commute from The Tablelands to Cairns. If you build another bridge, you don’t open anything new. It should become a dedicated tourism road.

“They’re rebuilding the bridge because the Bridle Track Tunnel wasn’t their idea, so they think it’s wrong. It’s Brisbane arrogance. For just over $1b you can build the Bridle Track Tunnel. It will mean a 20-minute commute from the Tablelands to Cairns.

“It will also open the Chillagoe mineral province (what may be one of the biggest provinces on earth) and the agricultural potential of the Tablelands, Cape and Gulf. Far North Qld has no way of getting our product to port. We’d have to send it to Townsville which isn’t feasible.

“We have three of the biggest rivers in Australia up here and their agricultural potential will remain untapped unless we can get our product to port efficiently. The answer is the Bridle Track.”