Cost variations are the latest roadblock thrown up in the face of the group working to seal the remainder of the Hann Highway between Hughenden and Cairns, and help usher in a new era of prosperity for North Queensland.
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When state Treasurer Curtis Pitt stopped in at Hughenden to inspect the missing link between Cairns and Melbourne, a good understanding of how much money his government would have to commit was his main request.
"Estimates from the Department of Transport and local councils vary widely - we're talking tens of millions of dollars in variation," he said.
In addition, he said his government hadn't yet seen a firm funding commitment from the federal government.
Hann Highway Action Group chairman Russell Lethbridge said that despite the sticking points, the meeting had given him a lot of confidence that the project would go ahead.
"We took Treasurer Pitt up in a helicopter and showed him the work that had been done - all the black soil sections are done, and local government has done all the work," Mr Lethbridge said.
"I'd be pretty disappointed if we didn't have an announcement on this within the next three months. It was good that the Treasurer came out here to see it for himself, so we could get our points across."
Amongst them were a belief that local government could build the highway 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than Main Roads costings, thanks to a lack of huge establishment costs.
"Flinders and Etheridge shires will both be submitting very detailed costing analyses by the end of the week to back this up," Mr Lethbridge said.
The highway inspection and subsequent meeting that included the action group, Flinders and Etheridge shire representatives, Advance Cairns chairman Stewart Smith, the Hughenden Chamber of Commerce and NorthBEEF proponents, was organised by the Member for Mount Isa, Rob Katter.
Mr Katter said if the federal government wanted to show its Developing the North white paper had credibility prior to the election next year, funding for the Hann Highway would have to be announced.
