Carpentaria Highway major upgrade

The Australian Government and Northern Territory Government are delivering major upgrades to sections of the Carpentaria Highway.

The Carpentaria Highway is a key access road to the Beetaloo Sub-basin, Borroloola and an important service route for the pastoral, tourism, agricultural and mining sectors.

The road is also a key route for supplies and transport for Glencore’s McArthur River Mine.

This is a $150 million project, jointly funded over four years ($120 million from the Australian Government and $30 million from the Northern Territory Government).

Aim

Upgrades to the Carpentaria Highway will complement multiple strategic projects currently underway that aim to bring the Territory’s vision to become a world-class gas production, manufacturing and services hub to reality.

Features

The project involves:

• reconstructing
• widening
• lifting
• other flood immunity improvements
• sealing.

Sealing of the road is being undertaken to a dual-lane standard, meaning one sealed lane in each direction, offering substantial safety benefits for all road users.

Benefits

The project is expected to result in the following benefits, improved:

• efficiency and network reliability
• freight productivity and access to freight gateways
• road safety for all road users, in line with Towards Zero Road Safety Action Plan
• connectivity between people with jobs and services, and goods with markets
• flood immunity, thereby reducing annual road closures
• access to health and social services for remote and Indigenous communities.

Current works

Exact Contracting is continuing to deliver upgrades along Carpentaria Highway.

Stage 2 construction is taking place between chainage 50 km to 109 km and is expected to be complete in late 2024.

Construction is taking place 7 days a week between the hours of 6am to 6pm. Some night works may be required.

Detours and traffic management will be in place at times throughout the project.

Completed works

Stage 1 works included design and construction from chainage 2 km to chainage 50 km.

Stage 1 works also included design work for stage 2.

Contact

For more information, email bmr.dipl@nt.gov.au or phone 08 8924 7105.