FUTURE HITS ROADBLOCK
M1 COMMUTERS and residents caught in feeder road gridlock in the northern suburbs will be stunned to learn today that construction of an alternative motorway hinges on future growth in traffic demand.
Drivers stuck on Yawalpah Rd at Pimpama, taking 23 minutes to crawl 150m to access the ramp on to the M1, will question just how bad the situation has to be before Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey and his department concede enough is enough.
Motorists stuck in the car park otherwise known as the Pacific Motorway at peak hour or indeed any hour when even the smallest bingle closes lanes will also struggle to control their temper at the prospect of things having to get worse before they are made better.
It is not only “demand’’ that will dictate when the jumper leads are applied to the project to build the Coomera Connector.
Availability of funding is another crucial factor. Things look grim in that department, since the Palaszczuk Government is staking its transport budget on building the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project in Brisbane.
Yesterday, as the Bulletin studied what the minister had to say about the future of the Coomera Connector alternative motorway to run east of the M1 from Nerang to Stapylton, there was confusion over conflict between Mr Bailey’s estimate of $2.4 billion for the entire project and the Transport and Main Roads website, which said that figure was the “current strategic cost estimate for stage 1 of the project (Coomera to Helensvale)’’.
If the website author was correct, the total cost of the 36km project would be astronomical. If the minister was correct, the website error was embarrassing.
The minister spoke to the Bulletin last night and confirmed $2.4 billion was for the entire project.
Local LNP MP Mark Boothman has complained timelines for the project have been removed from the department’s project information, leaving northern residents and all Gold Coast commuters in the dark on motorway and feeder road relief.
Given the Government’s Brisbane priorities, little wonder the timing has been shuffled to the backburner.
Mr Bailey said it had been delayed while the Government continued to gazette the corridor in which the road would be built.
But he must realise this problem is not going away and can’t be allowed to drag on. Like the interest charged on funding borrowed for infrastructure projects, the traffic congestion problem is compounding by the day as the population rockets.
The minister also has to start moving on extending the heavy rail line from Varsity Lakes station south to the Gold Coast Airport. It is not the be-all and end-all solution to transport gridlock, but it will go a considerable way to easing the problem.
Possible rail routes have been examined since the late 1990s and a preferred rail corridor between Robina and the airport was identified and preserved in 2009.
In urging the Government to bite the bullet on an alternative motorway, the Bulletin is not backing away from its consistent calls for an effective, reliable heavy rail system to be completed. Far from it. We need both.