The Midland Highway 10 Year Action Plan sets out the Australian and Tasmanian governments' key priorities for investing $565 million over 10 years to upgrade the highway and improve road safety and save lives on Tasmania's key north-south freight route.
We are improving road safety and decreasing driver frustration by providing a safer road with more overtaking opportunities.
We have delivered two-thirds of the highway upgrade, and works are starting on the remaining 50 kilometres of rural highway across three projects from February 2022.
The objective of our 10 year investment in the Midland Highway is to deliver a minimum 3-star rating for the Midland Highway.
The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) is part of the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) that uses star ratings to measure the safety of a road's infrastructure. Each road is assigned a star rating which tells us how safe the road itself is and allows road safety improvements to be identified and costed.
The AusRAP Star Rating Australia's National Network of Highways 2013 report found that the majority of the Midland Highway rated either only 1 or 2-star, in its 5-star safety rating scale.
We are using the Safe System approach, which has been adopted by all Australian states and territory road authorities. This approach recognises that people will make mistakes which result in crashes, and road infrastructure needs to be designed to take account of these errors.
For most of the Midland Highway, the predominant crash type is loss of control, most of which are single vehicle crashes with some resulting in head-on crashes and fatalities. To achieve a 3 star safety rating, a number of road treatments will be applied.
Dual carriageways are provided at locations where traffic volumes are higher - generally near Launceston and Hobart. Our action plan has delivered the construction of four lane dual carriageways at Perth in northern Tasmania. The provision of a four lane highway elsewhere will remain a long term goal which will be achieved by upgrading in a staged process as traffic volumes increase.
We are currently upgrading the final three remaining rural sections of the Midland Highway to a minimum three-star AusRAP safety rating:
We will manage construction to reduce delays, but we recognise that there will be some disruption and delays for road users travelling along the highway as these important safety improvements are rolled out.
You can check out our Roadworks Map to get the latest information about roadworks and possible delays.
Road users are reminded to slow down and comply with the posted speed limits for all roadwork sites.
Speed limits may be reduced when there are changes to the road surface, new or no line marking, changes to centre separation, new or no barriers, or road workers and equipment on the road or at the side of the road.
The need to reduce the speed may not be obvious, but reduced speed limits are for your safety and the safety of road workers. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this important safety upgrade.