The long, hard, deadly road that is the Pacific Highway is inching its way towards dual lane carriageway from Hexham to the Queensland border. Progress is being made, but we’re still looking at ten years, at least, before the job is done.

Still, if you’re heading north from Sydney, there’s now only 27 kilometres of old highway remaining between the start of the F3 at Wahroonga, and Taree.

That’s now being converted to dual lane carriageway; work is also about to start on the next part of the northern link, from Coopernook to Heron’s Creek. When that’s done, you’ll be able to reach Port Macquarie from Sydney in about three and a half hours.

Fifteen years ago, it took nearly six hours.

But it’s obvious that safety is not the highest priority in the highway upgrade. Drivers wishing to enter or cross the dual carriageway from many side roads are now faced with an even more dangerous situation, because highway traffic is going faster, and there are four lanes to negotiate if they are crossing the intersection.

Where these intersections have been retained, the RTA has in some locations reduced the speed limit on new dual carriageway sections to 90 km/h, rather than doing the job properly and achieving the best safety outcome by building an overpass with entry and exit ramps.

They build proper motorways in the rest of the developed world. Why not here?