Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said thousands of jobs will be created throughout the Northern Rivers and Coffs Coast thanks to $1 billion worth of major civil work packages which have gone to tender for the Woolgoolga to Ballina section of the Pacific Highway upgrade.
“This is great news for our community,” Mr Hogan said.
“Not only is the long-awaited duplication of the Pacific Highway on schedule to meet our 2020 deadline, about 900 jobs will be created locally and another 2500 indirect jobs just from the $1 billion worth of civil work tenders I announced recently.”
“Every time someone working on the Pacific Highway upgrade fuels up, buys lunch, stays in local accommodation or goes to local businesses to purchase goods and services, they are injecting money into the local economy.”
Work is now happening on 90 kilometres of the 155 kilometres of the Woolgoolga to Ballina project, including 26 kilometres of mainline construction between Woolgoolga to Glenugie. Mainline construction on other sections will progressively start during 2017.
Mr Hogan said the flow of funding and investment in the upgrade would underpin the success of businesses of all sizes throughout the region.
The Pacific Highway upgrade is Australia’s largest regional infrastructure project and it will reduce travel times for motorists and road freight, improve safety and ensure the Mid-North Coast is future ready.
The Australian and New South Wales governments are jointly funding the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade on an 80:20 basis.
