What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

Build a four lane Midland Highway with the assistance of Federal Government Auslink funds.

The Midland Highway and Bass Highway form part of the National Highway Network and are the major freight and passenger route in Tasmania.  Between 2001 and 2005 almost 40% of all Tasmanian crashes occurred on the National Highway (Bass and Midland Highways).  Over the past 5 years, the Tasmanian Corridor Strategy has found that Tasmanian container freight has grown by 10.5% a year, but even with a more conservative 6% a year growth, Tasmania would experience a doubling of container freight in 10 years (by 2017).

Whilst population growth is not great, Tasmanians are moving from the centre of towns to urban fringes.  The Strategy finds that there will be increased passenger travel. Passenger travel for education and services will also increase.  Patient transport and travel by University of Tasmania staff and students are prime examples.  General Freight transport by road is expected to double over the next 20-25 years.  Tasmania will continue to have the highest level of car ownership per capita of any State.

Between 2005 and 2030, freight movements are forecast to increase by 70% and passenger movements by 40%. Freight carried by rail is forecast to increase by over 120% over the same period. Historically, the Port of Hobart was the main trading port for Southern Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Corridor Strategy has found that over the last 20 years, the Hobart port’s throughput has significantly declined, while the freight task between Southern Tasmania and the northern ports has continued to increase with more than 30% of containers leaving our northern ports originating from the south.

State and Federal governments have recognised this trend with the progressive upgrade to dual carriageway of the Bass Highway between Devonport and Burnie (now completed).

Since the Tasmanian Liberals committed to a long-term four-lane Midland Highway plan, Labor has made many incorrect and deliberately misleading claims about the project, effectively seeking to sabotage efforts to attract federal funds for this project and sending a message that Tasmanians don’t deserve quality infrastructure.

Claim #1: The Infrastructure Minister suggests the Liberal plan would cost “over $2 billion”.

Fact: This seems to be a figure plucked out of the air, based on a fresh new 4-lane road on a new route, with new bridges, etc. Proof of the unreliability of this assertion is that, when asked to justify it, the Minister pointed to the cost of the Brighton bypass. This is totally misleading: the Liberal plan does not propose a new route, nor does it propose a new 4-lane road.

Claim #2: In attempts to criticise the Liberal plan for a four lane Midland Highway, the Infrastructure Minister has suggested “a second carriageway would need to be provided between Pontville and Breadalbane – a distance of about 160 kilometres”.

Fact: This ignores the existing 11 four lane stretches which already exist between Pontville and Perth (totaling 20 km) and the over 16 km of stretches with 3 lanes already built. Australian Transport Safety Bureau figures put the parts of the Midland Highway which are not dual carriageway at about 120 km.

Claim #3: The Minister also suggests bypasses of Campbell Town and Perth would add to the cost, as would new bridges in both towns.

Fact: The Liberal plan does not include bypasses of either town. Indeed, in regard to Campbell Town the highway provides an important economic base and the town provides a desirable ‘driver reviver’ centre for food, petrol, conveniences and a children’s playground.

Claim #4: The Infrastructure Minister says that traffic volumes in the centre of the Midland Highway are about 5,000 vehicles a day.

Fact: His own department’s Tasmanian Corridor Strategy predicts increases on all sectors of the Midland Highway over the next 25 years, including:

• a 34% increase in passenger transport between Perth and Conara;
• a 72% increase in freight transport between Perth and Conara;
• a 34% increase in passenger transport between Conara and Brighton; and
• a 67% increase in freight transport between Conara and Brighton

Plus significant increases in freight and passenger transport levels between Brighton and Bridgewater which are already being addressed by the vital Brighton bypass.

A Hodgman Liberal Government will negotiate to apply AusLink funds to upgrade, where appropriate, those sections of the Midland Highway that are currently not dual carriageway.

The Tasmanian Liberals have adopted as policy the progressive duplication of approximately 120 km of the Midland Highway which is not yet dual carriageway. We will seek to work co-operatively with the Federal Government of the day on this important infrastructure project. Bypasses of Perth and Campbell Town have not been considered and are not included in our proposal.

Civil engineers have informed us that the current cost for one kilometre of a two lane road built to National Highway standards would be between $1M and $2M depending on topography.

We have also added a contingency to ensure that land acquisitions, bridges and junctions were able to be funded. To ensure that we are prudent in our costing we have used the high end figure of $2M per kilometre and have added a 60% contingency (for a total of $3.2M per km).

An example of recent works is that the duplication of the West Tamar Highway between Cormiston Road and Legana Park Drive cost in total $8M for a distance of 3.5 km. The cost per km was $2.28M. It is worth noting that these works include a major roundabout as well as an extra 2 metres of sealed shoulder on the outside of each carriageway for cyclists. Therefore based on 120 km of highway requiring duplication, our estimate of the current cost of this project is around $400M. This has been supported by the highly regarded Tasmanian civil contractor Alwyn Shaw who has said the figures are based on similar jobs his company has done on the National Highway including Hadspen to Launceston, Ulverstone to Penguin, the Sorell Causeway and Bass Highway bypasses.

The Tasmanian Liberals have written to the Prime Minister to request that the Federal Government include an upgrade of the highway in its AusLink priorities over the next 20 years.  Under  AusLink arrangements the Federal Government usually funds 80% of the cost of the project.

We received a response from the Federal Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese MP who did not rule out this project receiving funding.

Planning for the upgrade of the Midland Highway will commence during the first term of a Hodgman Liberal Government and subject to achieving a commitment from the Federal Government for national Highway funding, a program of works will commence in 2014/15.