The highly anticipated final stage of the Hughes Road extension has officially opened to traffic after almost seven months of construction.
The last stage of the project included delivery of the 1.5km extension of Hughes Road, between Watsons Road and Wearing Road, and associated drainage upgrade works.
Bundaberg Regional Council’s senior engineer Clete Perrott said now the works were complete, residents would have a more direct route between Bargara and southern coastal suburbs.
“This has been a big project for Council and one that will be beneficial to many who travel throughout our coastal communities,” he said.
“Construction to the two-lane road featured a number of elements including the drainage works and new pathways.”
Clete said the works would provide residents with greater connectivity within the coastal communities.
“The extension of Hughes Road forms part of the long-term North South Link project, designed to provide easier access to coastal areas for travellers,” he said.
“As part of that goal, construction to a roundabout was completed last year which will enable seamless traffic flows now that Hughes Road is fully constructed,” he said.
“Not only will this project help to reduce traffic on residential streets, it will provide faster and more direct access to shopping facilities and services.”
Along with reducing traffic, Clete said the Hughes Road extension would also help facilitate further residential development starting to occur along this growth corridor.
Hughes Road project history
Clete said the need for an extension of Hughes Road from Watsons Road to Back Windermere Road was first identified in the Burnett Shire Council Road Network Strategy back in 1997.
“However, the project only started to gain momentum in 2010 when the newly formed Bundaberg Regional Council adopted a proposed alignment and began to allocate budget funding to the project,” he said.
“Significant pre-construction planning has been ongoing with resumptions and easements needing to be resolved, designs completed and services relocated.”
Clete said construction of Stage 1 commenced in 2013.
“This featured the three-way intersection of Back Windermere Road/Windermere Road/Rifle Range Road upgraded to a roundabout with an additional fourth leg to accommodate the future Hughes Road extension,” he said.
“In 2016 construction of Stage 2 commenced and involved work to a new section of Hughes Road from Wearing Road west to the Stage 1 Roundabout.
“Stage 3 construction commenced in early 2019 and involved the upgrade of the Hughes Road/Watson Road intersection to a four-leg roundabout.”
Clete said it was great to see all of the hard work carried out by many people over the years culminate with the opening of the Hughes Road extension.
“Bundaberg Regional Council thanks motorists and nearby residents for their patience during the road closure for this project,” he said.
Funding for the work has been made available through government programs including Roads to Recovery and TIDS.
This is fantastic . Well done Council. It would be great now to expedite the next roundabout at our Coast’s worst intersection at where Innes Park Rd meets Back Windermere Rd
Cheers
Bill
I/we didn’t know that the road had opened until we came to the western end of Wearing Road and recognised traffic coming from our right, which we gave way to on our way into Bundy. On our way back out we deliberately came up Bargara Road as far ass Hughs Rd and at The Watsons/Hughes Rd roundabout went straight ahed onto the new road for the first time. This is a great piece of infra-structure. Well done to everybody who had input to it over the years. I think that a few other things like the traffic lights across Bargara Road close to Aldi and Woolies will have to be re-calibrated to cater to the increased traffic usage from Hughs Road and turn right into Blain.