Night closures of the Captain Cook Highway between Port Douglas and Cairns are likely to take place from July and may run through to at least Christmas, weather permitting.

During an industry briefing this morning in Port Douglas by the State Government Transport and Main Roads Department (TMR), Far North District director Darryl Jones outlined the planned closure schedule, but also stressed that his team would like to hear from anyone with concerns so plans could be further updated.

Mr Jones said the plan at this stage was to close the road from 9pm-4am for five nights per week from Sunday evening through to Friday morning for essential works to be done that could only be carried out during a full road closure, with two “let throughs” to take place each night at 11pm and 1.30am.

“There are activities that we cannot do without full road closures,” Mr Jones said.

Up to 60 workers would be ramping up the Captain Cook Highway roadworks schedule across the coming few weeks before the full night closures began, he said.

The night-closure program is being designed to fit in with the tourism industry, with the “let throughs” scheduled to coincide with planes landing at Cairns Airport, no closures on Friday and Saturday nights, and no closures during key events such as Carnivale this month and Ironman Cairns to be held on June 15.

The ironman course takes in that stretch of road and the event will be televised to a global audience.

“We are keen to work with the community on those types of community events,” Mr Jones said.