The Newell Highway Corridor Strategy and the Princes Highway Corridor Strategy are being developed by the Australian Government in partnership with relevant state governments.
The strategies are intended to develop an evidence base for a whole of corridor perspective on the current and future needs, issues and priorities for these important highways. They will also guide future government investment decisions.
The Australian Trucking Association welcomes the development of this evidence based approach to future funding commitments and recommends that the corridor strategies should:
- Set a High Productivity Freight Vehicle (HPFV) as of right access objective.
- Build future upgrades to this standard.
- Deliver a detailed project investment priority list to guide government funding.
- Undertake a detailed assessment of heavy vehicle rest areas and deliver an investment plan to ensure the corridors have the right quality and quantity of rest areas.
- For the Newell Highway, incorporate the provision of livestock effluent disposal facilities.
- Integrate with local land use planning to provide corridor protection, coupling and uncoupling bays and HPFV town bypasses.
The ATA also recommends that the Australian Government should:
- Implement a national, strategic planning approach to the selection of corridors for expanding the corridor strategy and investment approach.
- Commit to develop a corridor strategy for the Hume Highway as an immediate priority.
- For the Newell, expand the corridor strategy to link with Brisbane and Melbourne.
- Expand the corridor approach to include freight routes beyond south eastern Australia.
The ATA’s analysis identifies that the potential for Parkes to serve as a major transport hub connecting inland rail and the Newell corridor will face significant road access barriers, as only limited heavy vehicle combinations have access on the Newell through to Parkes.
Read the submissions below.
