MORNING MAYHEM ON THE M1
DESPERATE businesses on the northern Gold Coast have told employees to begin work at the crack of dawn – but they’re still getting stuck in M1 traffic.
Northern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce secretary Gary Mays said productivity was being smashed by the mayhem.
“I have a plumbing company and our travel times are blowing out to all hell,” he said.
The cost of lost wages through traffic delays on the M1 in the next 20 years is forecast to blow out to $400 million a year.
But the Labor government remains opposed to the construction of a duplicate road, insisting it would cost $2.4 billion to build.
LNP leader Tim Nicholls claims the job could be done for as little as $500m.
THE State Government says the cost of building a second Pacific Motorway east of the existing highway has blown out to $2.4 billion, almost five times estimates from two years ago.
A Council of Mayors infrastructure “wish list” document drafted for the 2015 State election listed the four-lane Intra Regional Transport Corridor (IRTC) as a priority at a cost of $500 million.
Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the overall 2017 cost estimate for the proposed M2 between Nerang and Stapleton in the city’s north was $2.4 billion.
The costing covered the private land to be acquired and calculations were based on a $60 million/ kilometre rate for six lanes.
“The $500 million (former Treasurer Tim) Mr Nicholls says it will cost will only pay for part of their Stage 1, being Coomera to Helensvale, which the department has estimated to cost around $500 million, including land.”
The IRTC would include facilities for public transport and paths for walking and cycling, Mr Bailey said.
“The IRTC is planned to be built in stages with the first stage – the Coomera Connector – likely to be constructed between Helensvale and Coomera to provide an additional crossing of the Coomera River,” he said.
State Parliament has been told the IRTC could take five years to build but Mr Bailey declined to speculate on a time frame or starting date.
The Government had acted to protect the corridor after the LNP failed to plan for the future by taking the unprecedented step to remove the IRTC from the SEQ Regional Plan in 2014, he added.
“The State owns about 95 per cent of the land needed between Coomera and Nerang and 35 per cent between Coomera and Stapylton,” Mr Bailiey said. “All directly affected stakeholders were contacted by Transport and Main Roads before gazettal of the corridor.”
The latest data suggests the eight lanes on the M1 between Yatala and Oxenford at some “hot spots” could reach gridlock within 18-to-24 months.
The latest Main Roads data, from 2016, recorded 152,177 vehicles per day for the M1 north of the Coomera interchange at Exit 54 with the traffic growing by 10,000 cars annually.
Mr Bailey said a 2015 TMRCity of Gold Coast joint planning study report forecast up to 21,000 vehicles each day could switch to using the IRTC from the M1.
RACQ chief communication officer Paul Turner believes the IRTC could take even more traffic off the M1.
“Depending on access points, intersections and a few other factors, the capacity of a fourlane arterial road would be around 50,000 to 60,000 per day,” he said.
“There are practical limits to how many lanes you can expand to on the M1, which can become very expensive if land has to be resumed.”