Pub rat-run problem
U-turners create chaos
MOTORISTS are using a pub car park to get access through a notorious M1 exit on the Gold Coast, state parliament has been told.
Video footage shows motorists heading north on a feeder road past Exit 57 at Oxenford taking a right turn into the tavern, which then allows them to head south back on to the Pacific Motorway.
Theodore MP Mark Boothman told Parliament: “It happens all day, every day. Every 15 seconds a car did a U-turn through the car park.
“Hope Island Road carries extensive traffic caused by a lack of foresight or vision to build a proper intersection. The residents use alternative roads such as Michigan Drive that are not designed to take such volumes of traffic.
“The Queensland Government statistician’s office estimates a population increase of around 15,000 people moving into the area around Exit 57 by 2031.
“We will have an extra 5000 people around Hope Island, 1700 people around Oxenford – which does not include the redevelopment of the acreage lots – 4000 people around Helensvale and, according to the data, around 7000 people in the Upper Coomera area.”
Mr Boothman said residents wanted a permanent traffic solution that had vision.
He said he and fellow LNP MP David Crisafulli had started a petition to highlight the congested overpass.
“A solution must include bypasses and flyovers that allow for the continuing movement of traffic, avoiding queues at traffic signals,” Mr Boothman said.
Work began in April last year on the state government’s $25m upgrade of Exit 57 designed to cut travel times at the intersection by 40 per cent.
The upgrade includes adding new turning lanes to the M1 to Hope Island and Tamborine-Oxenford roads.
But business operators and some residents objected to the removal of the option for traffic heading south from Bunnings to turn right on the exit, cross over to the eastern side before heading south again on the M1.
Area councillor William Owen-Jones is waiting on Labor and the LNP to put forward longer-term solutions in the lead-up to October’s state poll. He said motorists began using the vacant pub car park for U-turns during the COVID-19 restrictions.
But safety issues were now arising given patrons had begun returning to the tavern.