TIME TO END ROAD RAGE

FOR 10 years Hinterland residents have lobbied the State Government for a stretch of road to be widened enough so it can have a white line painted down the middle of it.

They are tired of being diverted 40 minutes or having to wait hours until trucks or accidents can be cleared because vehicles, for one reason or another, cannot make it around the tight bend at the intersection of North and Beechmont roads, Lower Beechmont.

It happened again yesterday when a wide-load truck relocating a church slipped off the road and then struck a powerline. All up, traffic was stopped for six hours. Residents said it was the third incident in six months.

Students were late for school, public buses stalled, rubbish could not be collected and the daily routines of Hinterland residents turned upside down.

The Bulletin yesterday asked the State Government a series of questions about residents’ plight and what it planned to do to ease their grief.

Transport and Main Roads did not answer them, instead detailing other road projects in the area.

Up to 20,000 people make their way up to Mount Tamborine every weekend, heading for tourism hot spots such as the produce markets and Gallery Walk and creating two kilometres of gridlock.

Residents’ frustration is only tipped to get worse with the population on the mountain tipped to increase from 41,000 to 62,000 people by 2030.

The area needs proper infrastructure. A small section of road should not be causing so much anguish so often.

Ten years of campaigning is enough. The State Government needs to end the pain before someone pays the ultimate price.