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A RECORD $100 million will be spent each week on Queensland's roads, busways, ports and rail links over the coming year, the State Government says.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Paul Lucas yesterday said $5.53 billion had been allocated in the 2007-08 State Budget to improve safety, build new roads and deliver a major boost to public transport services.

"We'll be spending more than $100 million every week building and maintaining the highways, busways, ports and rail links that keep Queensland moving," Mr Lucas said.

"That's a massive boost for transport infrastructure (from last year) of 24.4 per cent, or $485.9 million, and for roads a huge 54 per cent increase, or $1.07 billion."

Mr Lucas said the package included more and better buses and trains, new and faster routes, and a growing, world-class network of dedicated busways, which had been allocated $318.1 million next year.

Train passengers would benefit from an additional 132 new Citytrain carriages over four years, boosting the fleet by 30 per cent, he said.

Major road projects funded by the Budget include the second Gateway Bridge river crossing, the completion of the Tugun Bypass project and upgrades to arterial roads around the State.

A project to improve traffic flow on the federally funded Ipswich Motorway would be allocated $384.5 million and more than $3.3 billion was also being invested in rural and regional roads outside the south-east corner

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2007/06/06/3495_hpnews.html