The coroner (Kevin Waller) endorsed the recommendation he made following the
Grafton bus crash two months earlier, that the Pacific Highway be upgraded to
dual carriageway between
Newcastle and the
Queensland border. The New South Wales and Commonwealth governments committed to carry out the required work, with an initial promised completion date of 2006. This target never came close to being met; at July 2008, only 267 kilometres (or 39%) of the route had been upgraded to dual carriageway standard, with 87 kilometres of divided road under construction and 325 kilometres of the highway still a single carriageway. As of May 2016, following a sustained upgrade program, 437 kilometres (65%) of the highway between
Hexham and the Queensland border was dual carriageway (either at freeway or arterial road standards), with 240 kilometres of single carriageway remaining to be upgraded