
CQ leader commits $75M to sealing ‘notorious’ rural road
A $75 MILLION package has been committed to upgrading a "notorious" Central Queensland road where seven crashes have been recorded in just five years.
Clermont Alpha Road connects Clermont to the Central Highlands and has recently been described as a "notorious" crash hotspot, after a motorcyclist was seriously injured last month.
"(There's been) at least a couple of deaths and many accidents with multiple people injured for life," Clermont resident Ken Murray said.
NQ First leader Jason Costigan has committed $75m to completely seal the remaining 74km if the party wins the balance of power at the State Election on October 31.
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Mr Costigan said the road was a critical transport link and it was time the unsealed section was fixed.
"We have earmarked $75m from our $300m Bitumen for the Bush program to get the job done."
He said the Federal LNP Government had been "painfully slow" in extending bitumen on the road through its Northern Australia Beef Roads Program but promised action under NQ First.

The rural road has an average of 80 motorists using it each day and has recorded about seven crashes in the past five years.
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NQ First candidate for Burdekin Carolyn Moriarty, who lives in Clermont, says she understood the importance of the cattle industry to the Central Queensland economy and that every effort should be made to completely seal the Clermont Alpha Road as soon as possible.
"The residents who live along this road have been fighting to have it sealed for 50 years," she said.
"NQ First recognises and acknowledges their efforts, including that of the Mistake Creek
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Progress Association, and we are committed to getting in and getting the job done, so long as NQ First wins enough seats to secure the balance of power."
The funding would be delivered as part of the $300m Bitumen for the Bush initiative, part of NQ First's $2 billion Roads to Revival program.
The program is exclusively for new and improved roads in North, Far North and Central Queensland and in addition to ongoing budget allocations through the Department of Transport and Main Roads.