The Tintenbar to Ewingsdale section of the Pacific Highway has got the go-ahead with $566 million in federal funding and $296 million state funding announced yesterday.
But acting premier Andrew Stoner says $8 billion is still needed to complete the duplication of the entire Pacific Highway by the government’s own imposed deadline of 2016.
‘Both governments have budgetary issues but infrastructure like this is always a high priority,’ he told ABC radio this morning.
The $660 million Ballina bypass currently under construction will be open by Christmas and the $359 million Banora Point upgrade is due to be completed next year.
State and federal governments also announced yesterday that they would fund duplication of the notorious Clybucca stretch of the highway between Kempsey and Macksville, scene of a horrific bush crash 20 years ago.
