Expect delays on Captain Cook Highway as works set to begin early next week

Resurfacing of the Captain Cook Highway at Palm Cove is scheduled to start first thing next week, weather permitting.

Temporary speed limits, some road and lane closures, workers directing cars and temporary traffic signals are all expected to be used in the area from 6am on Monday, March 24, to 6pm on Wednesday, March 26, as roadworks are carried out by State Government Transport and Main Roads Department (TMR) contractors.

TMR has warned that intermittent full closures of the road will be taking place for up to 15 minutes at a time, so road users are being told to plan their journeys accordingly.

If there are changes in dates due to poor weather, they will be posted on electronic signs near the works.

Meanwhile, there are more than 90 sites still needing to be fixed on Captain Cook Highway following Cyclone Jasper and the subsequent flooding, a TMR statement released this week reads.

One “high priority site” about a kilometre north of Turtle Creek Beach has now been filled with rock and the downslope has been successfully stabilised, TMR states.

That work crew has now moved about 300m north to start soil nailing on another downslope.

Nearly 3km north of Ellis Beach, both lanes have also been repaired this year by TMR crews. 

However, traffic controls will remain in place across the region to allow for more preliminary works to take place on other sections. 

TMR expects to return to the area later in the year to do more drainage works and do creek works further upstream. 

TMR states its construction sites and previous works have not been damaged by a landslide early last month just south of Ellis Beach, with debris on the road quickly cleaned up and the highway re-opened to single-lane traffic on the same day. 

There are also currently no night closures scheduled for April, but if that changes, TMR states it will give advanced notice to Captain Cook Highway drivers.