ROAD SAFETY – Wide Centrelines Proving Their Effectiveness on the Bruce Highway

As the primary north-south route in Queensland, the Bruce Highway performs a critical freight and movement task, but has been consistently one of the most dangerous roads in the nation, both in terms of total crashes and total fatal and serious injury (FSI) crashes – indeed from 2005-09 crashes on the Bruce Highway contributed 61% of deaths on the Queensland network. 

 The Bruce Highway Action Plan is a state Government initiative to improve the operation and safety performance for the Bruce Highway, and one component was the targeted installation of wide centrelines and wire rope barriers. 

 NACOE delivered a project that monitored and evaluated the relative performance of these treatments over several years, with wide centrelines expected to reduce overall FSI crashes by approximately 22% and reduce cross centreline FSI crashes (including head-on crashes) by approximately 43%. The value of this road safety improvement may be as high as $150 million per year if extended along the full length of the highway. 

 NACOE research has also focused on identifying high-risk crash types and high-risk locations along the Bruce Highway, with a combination of treatments expected to deliver further significant savings, and most importantly deliver reductions to the road toll.