Council ‘going hard’ on new road builds

$700M ROAD MAP

MAYOR Tom Tate says he wants to fast-track roadworks designed to ease Gold Coast congestion, saying council is “planning to go hard”.

The Bulletin yesterday revealed in a special report that Council had plotted out at least 116 roadworks projects through to 2031 as part of a $705 million push to “congestion-proof” suburbs.

A bulk of the money, more than $200 million, will be fast-track spending on major road projects in the 2019-20 financial year.

“Next year you will see a record spend on roads. We have costed the road upgrades, we will now tweak it and revitalise it so they are built earlier in the piece,” he said.

“I predict we will spend $180 million on congestion-busting programs next year.

“We have been putting money away in a reserve from infrastructure charges and this spend is going to happen. We are planning to go hard.”

Council this year committed $110 million to road upgrades.

Many of the planned roadworks are already on the drawing board and well progressed, allowing the council to fasttrack if necessary.

Council sources told the Gold Coast Bulletin several of the upgrades would be “shovel ready” to begin in the 2019-20 financial year.

Cr Tate used a press conference yesterday to take aim at the Coast’s three federal MPs, Steven Ciobo, Stuart Robert and Karen Andrews, saying in the wake of the Super Saturday by-elections that they took the city for granted.

“Any federal government to take the Gold Coast for granted would be a mistake – voters are very quick to change their minds and judge and if you take the Coast for granted, you do so at your own peril,” he said.

When asked if he thought the three MPs took the city for granted, Cr Tate said “Yes I do”.

“Listen to your local government, we are grassroots,” he said.