With heavy vehicles making up around 18 per cent of traffic on this highway, works are underway to upgrade a 4.5 kilometre stretch to better meet modern heavy vehicle standards.
The Zeehan Highway on Tasmania’s west coast averages around 1055 vehicles a day.
This major upgrade will include improvements to the Zeehan Highway from its junction with the Murchison Highway to Henty Road in Zeehan.
The upgrade is the next stage of an almost $44 million initiative to improve the Murchison and Zeehan Highways, jointly funded by the Australian and Tasmanian governments.
A $10.6 million contract has been awarded to Tasmanian company Shaw Contracting for the Zeehan Highway stage.
The upgrade will improve safety by delivering two three-metre-wide sealed lanes, with one-metre-wide sealed shoulders and 0.5-metre-wide gravel verges.
Construction is expected to be completed in May 2025.
A future stage will continue the upgrade north along the Murchison Highway between the Argent River and Ring River.
These future upgrades between Rosebery and Zeehan are expected to increase freight efficiency and reduce travel times, improving inter-regional connections to and from northern export ports in Tasmania.
The works will widen curves, seal road shoulders, and provide gravel verges, together with more formal overtaking opportunities and strategically located pull-off and load checking sites for heavy vehicle users.
“This work is welcome news for the west coast region as heavy vehicles are a large amount of the traffic using that section of road,” said Senator for Tasmania Anne Urquhart.