M1 should be widened to four lanes each way, not just three

NOW that $1 billion has been secured from the Federal Government for the M1, we can only hope the job is done really properly!

Unless there has been a change in thinking, while I respect and applaud the efforts to date, resulting in the M1 being widened to three lanes through to Tugun, I’m wondering if we have lost sight of the original objective.

When the main Gold Coast Highway was widened to four lanes each way from just before Beenleigh to the Southport turnoff, everyone was overjoyed with the result – we know personally, that from Brisbane to Currumbin, it cut about 15 min off our journey.

So, shouldn’t the objective be to continue that great initiative, with four lanes all the way from Brisbane through to the border?

Travelling from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, the first major choke point/parking lot every day is at the Eight Mile Plains bus interchange, where the road narrows to three lanes, then down to two lanes (what rocket scientist allowed that to happen, particularly at the time of the major roadworks joining with the Gateway motorway, surely it should have been addressed then?). It is said this will now be addressed – I sincerely hope to four lanes.

And where is the next major choke point/parking lot? – straight after the Southport turnoff when the M1 narrows from four lanes to three lanes and as we all know, next is from Robina on, when it narrows to two lanes.

So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that four lanes all the way is the possible solution – maybe not forever, but it would make a massive difference to have one clear throughway with no choke points, all the way from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and beyond.

And apart from potentially solving the consistent congestion problem, a major extra benefit should be substantially less accidents because, as choke points are removed, so would be much of the angst and impatience, which all too often leads to tragic outcomes.

A further benefit – assuming it was done, then there’s no reason why we can’t have a 110km/h speed limit all the way from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and beyond (maybe even up to 120 km/ h?), further cutting down travelling times and bringing the two cities closer together.

Why is it that all too often we just do half a job, staving off the inevitable and invariably incurring dramatically increased costs. There is no doubt that when the M1 is widened to three lanes, giving a brief moment of relief, it will immediately be out of date and insufficient – but right now, while all the equipment and labour is there, why not widen it to four lanes immediately?

It would seem to be a no-brainer, to finish the job right now, thereby planning for the future more effectively and ultimately, more economically.

IAN GRACE, PALM BEACH