Claims state misled public on link roads
THE State Government is being accused of misleading residents about what key roads will link up in the first stage of the planned $1.53bn Coomera Connector.
Theodore MP Mark Boothman has asked Transport Minister Mark Bailey to “direct the department” to reevaluate its plan to dump traffic from the second M1 on to busy Helensvale Road.
In his response, Mr Bailey said the Transport and Main Roads (TMR) department was sticking with its plans to use Helensvale Road and had ruled out another option of connecting with Hope Island Road.
Mr Boothman said: “The community consultation was in November 2019. Yet according to the answer to my question they had no intention of actually putting a connection on Hope Island Road. So what is the point of putting it on their map?
“A lot of residents are obviously concerned about the traffic on Helensvale Road, especially around school times at the moment.
“They are fearful this new connection will place additional traffic, which will cause additional congestion. Why mislead the general public that there is a potential
connection at Hope Island Road which would be more prudent?
“Obviously, they knew this beforehand that there would be potentially 100 properties acquired and it would cause flooding issues (at Hope Island).”
In a council briefing in November, transport bureaucrats advised councillors concerned about funding for the Helensvale Road upgrade that dual laning of the connector road was still being
worked out. The six-lane highway is expected to take up to 60,000 vehicles a day off the congested Pacific Motorway, preventing it from reaching gridlock around Helensvale.
Mr Bailey said the former Newman Government had cut the Coomera Connector from planning documents “after not one new dollar was invested in light rail, the M1 or heavy rail on the Gold Coast” by the LNP.
As part of the preliminary
evaluation phase of the project, interchange locations were assessed from both engineering and design, and traffic modelling points of view, he said.
“An interchange at Helensvale Road was accounted for when the project corridor from Coomera to Nerang was formally confirmed in the Queensland Government Gazette in March 2016,” Mr Bailey said. “Based on community feedback about the desire for an interchange to
be provided at Hope Island Road, the Department of Transport and Main Roads has since undertaken investigations to determine the feasibility of the connection.
“Analysis confirmed Helensvale Road as the most suitable location, avoiding in excess of 100 property resumptions at Hope Island and Monterey Keys.”
Mr Bailey said the first stage of the project was not expected to cause significant change to traffic volumes.