Of the 34,656 km of national highways (which include the National Land Transport Network highways and other key freight routes) identified in the Audit, 6,838 km (almost 20 per cent) are in Queensland. 360,800 vehicles used this network per day in 2011. This includes the following national highway links connecting key urban centres:
■ Sydney to Brisbane (Pacific Motorway/Pacific Highway M1 and Cunningham Highway/New England Highway A15);
■ Brisbane to Cairns (Bruce Highway M1/A1);
■ Brisbane to Darwin (Warrego, Landsborough and Barkly Highways) (M2); and
■ Townsville to Mt Isa (Flinders Highway A6).
Figure 78 shows the National Land Transport Network highways and the other key Queensland freight routes included in the Audit. Together these routes play an important role in facilitating the production processes for industry and enabling the activities of business and the community.
Queensland performs better than NSW and the NT in terms of road safety on a per kilometre basis, but worse than other jurisdictions.
The DEC of Queensland's national highways and key freight routes is projected to increase from $2.39 billion in 2011 to $4.47 billion in 2031.