of Queensland announcing that the road was closed, less than one month after it was officially opened. In 1935, the Mains Road Commission upgraded the road to highway and named it the Cunningham Highway. The new sealed road through the gap was eventually opened in November 1949. Route The north-eastern terminus of the Cunningham Highway is situated a short distance west of where the Warrego Highway reaches its eastern terminus with the Ipswich Motorway, at , a suburb of Ipswich. From this point, the Cunningham heads south-west as the Cunningham Motorway, bypassing to the south the Ipswich central business district, the original path of the highway, now named Warwick Road. The motorway transitions to the Cunningham Highway, and a further modern deviation takes the highway south of and RAAF Base Amberley through the Scenic Rim region including the towns and settlements of , the Fassifern Valley and . From this point, the Cunningham Highway begins its ascent across the Great Dividing Range via a mountain pass at an elevation of above sea level called Cunninghams Gap, situated in the Main Range National Park, between the peaks of Mount Cordeaux and Mount Mitchell. As the Cunningham Highway descends through the Southern Downs region and west adjacent to the settlement of , it reaches a major junction with the New England Highway near Eastments Ridge approximately north of Warwick. The two highways run south to Warwick, sharing the National Route 15 shield and cross the Condamine River before the concurrency terminates and the New England Highway runs south, carrying the National Highway 15 shield; and the Cunningham heads west by south-west through , , before reaching its south-western terminus on the outskirts of Goondiwindi. Within close proximity of Goondiwindi, the Cunningham Highway links to the Newell, Leichhardt, and Barwon highways, with the Bruxner Highway nearby. Towns on the Cunningham Highway From northeast to southwest, the following towns and settlements are located on the Cunningham Highway: Goondiwindi Upgrades Highway upgrades A lead project to plan and conduct upgrades to the highway, at a total cost of $212.5 million, was in the planning phase in November 2021. The $25 million intersection upgrade described below is included in this project. Intersection upgrade A project to upgrade the intersection with the New England Highway east of Warwick, at a cost of $25 million, was due for completion in August 2022. Reconstruction works A project to reconstruct