The Strzelecki Track in outback South Australia is set to be partly sealed in a push to create an almost continuous stretch of tarmac between Queensland and Western Australia.
The South Australian Government has announced the project will begin by sealing a 50-kilometre section of the track north of Lyndhurst.
Mining Minister and local MP Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the State Government's intention was to seal all 472 kilometres of track, but it needed Federal Government support.
"We fully intend to do the whole thing in partnership with the Federal Government," Mr van Holst Pellekaan said.
"But we are determined to just get started so we are putting state money towards the first 50 kilometres.
"Rather than wait for the perfect deal one day that might get the whole thing done all at once, which is what people have done for decades now, we're just going to get some of it done straightaway."
Grey MP Rowan Ramsey said the Federal Government was originally hesitant to fund the upgrade, because the former Labor State Government had shown little interest.
"I actually had a meeting with [former Premier] Jay Weatherill about four years ago, and there just wasn't the keenness to put any money up from the SA perspective," Mr Ramsey said.
"But now we've actually got that [funding], I think I've got a very good case to argue with Michael McCormack that we could make a commitment."
'One of the worst roads in the country'
The SA Road Transport Association has welcomed the announcement.
Executive officer Steve Shearer said the road had a fearsome reputation among truck drivers.
"That road, if you can call it a road, eats trucks for a living, it shakes them apart, it destroys them unlike any other road in our state," Mr Shearer said.
"The trucks get shaken so much that most truck operators have to do a major rebuild on the truck every five or six journeys. In a normal truck's life you might do that every five years.
"It'd probably have to be listed as one of the worst roads in the country."
The Strzelecki Track is essential for pastoralists and petroleum and mining companies in the Cooper Basin.
Pastoralist Adam Litchfield from Mt Lyndhurst Station said it had been a long time coming.
"It'll be great for us, we're always up and down the track, it runs right through the middle of our property," Mr Litchfield said.
"It can be a pretty ordinary road at times, and dangerous with dust, road trains, corrugations and rocks.
"Hopefully it's just a start and they keep on going and seal the whole 'Strez'."
