If ever there was a time for action in reducing the toll on the road between Port Douglas and Cairns, its now. The amalgamation itself implies added use, particularly for council workers. This stretch of highway has one of the States worst track records in terms of spilt blood. Almost everyone in Douglas knows someone who has come to grief on this road. I have lost colleagues over the edge with tragic consequences. The dangerous nexus of the slower, ‘rubber-necked’ tourist, with the impatient commercial delivery, makes for unhappy road use. As the traffic numbers on this windingroad build, the State, who is responsible for its upgrade, have done a reasonably good job of engineering stickier pavements, but the refusal to add much needed overtaking lanes is a major issue. The ridiculously short overtaking lanes added in recent years are so short as to be dangerous. Where there are flatland zones, we need at least two more major overtaking zones of more than a kilometer in length.

Some of the deadlier cambers still need attention and if you want to know where, just look for the spots marked with the crucifixes and flowers.
The section of highway behind Pebbly beach is in crook condition and sooner or later retaining walls will need to be built here in an aesthetically sensitive way.
The Douglas Shire has been dropping the ball on lobbying for the above improvements and as a potential councillor who will be using this road every second day, I commit to applying pressure for the needed upgrades.

The failure of Main Roads to put their hand in their pocket and provide a roundabout at the Port Douglas turnoff is rank with hypocrisy, when the Main Roads buck passed responsibility in the demanding $1.8 million worth of roundabouts at Bale and Ferndale be built, when the more urgent need was at the Captain Cook Highway. The safer crossing for kids near the Ferndale roundabout must also be urgently provided by Main Roads.
In Mossman, Main Roads must get on with the rationalization of the Mossman raintrees intersection, to make the flow constant alongside the outside, not inside of the centre triangular park.
At Rocky Point, the State need to rebuild the boat ramp with a fly over section so the erosion caused by the hydrological disturbance does not continue to eat away at the shoreline denuded of sand to the north of the ramp and failing to do so will cost a huge amount in retaining the highway unless nature starts re-depositing sand.
North of the Daintree Ferry, Main Roads needs to re-take responsibility for maintaining the road to Cape Tribulation and even beyond.
There are 370 kilometers of dirt road within the Douglas Shire and the CRC needs to work with the longer term strategic plans of the recent Douglas Shire to get these roads sealed over the next 15 years. In fact, the CRC should accelerate the sealing of Douglas roads simply, if for no other reason, than to reduce ongoing maintenance liabilities. Not every country lane needs asphalt, but the vast majority of dirt roads need to be upgraded in alignment with the much larger rates being extracted from these areas, where rural values have been on the rise.
The many millions needed to seal Douglas roads is a massive undertaking, as is the $40 million cost to sewer the northern beaches and with Douglas contributing a hefty $24 million to the CRC budget each year, Douglas is entitled to see continued progress in sealing of our roads, to the point where there are as few unsealed roads in Cairns as in Douglas.

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.