The intersection of the New England Highway and Cawdor Road is one of the busiest intersections in Queensland’s Crow’s Nest Shire. With approximately 11,000 vehicles per day on the New England Highway and 3,000 vehicles on Cawdor Road, traffic entering the New England Highway often experienced substantial delays, especially at peak times.
Located 150 kilometres north west of Brisbane, an upgrade to the intersection was identified as the highest priority work required on the State controlled roads network within the Shire.
In mid 2002, Crow’s Nest Shire Council’s workforce commenced work on the upgrade on behalf of the Department of Main Roads. The project, completed in April 2003 at a cost of $1.95 million, involved the reconstruction of the intersection and the installation of the Shire’s first set of traffic lights. It also involved widening a 200 metre section of the highway from two to four lanes.
This has extended the four lane section of the highway and increased the height of the new road by up to 1.5 metres to improve the vertical alignment and site distance. At the same time, the street lighting on the approaches to and through the intersection was also upgraded.
The base layer of the 375mm deep pavement specified a type 3.1 gravel with a modified ‘C’ grading (containing a higher fines content) which aimed at creating a less permeable pavement. Statistically speaking, the project involved 6,700 square metres of fill, 14,000 tonnes of road base, 2.2 kilometres of electrical conduiting, 310 metres of stormwater drainage pipe and approximately 18,000 man hours.
