Residents revolt over road upgrade

Residents Nathan Hansen, Kiersten Behan, Teresa Hope, Doug and Judy Sayers and Bill Flynn, with MP Nick Dametto. Picture: CAITLAN CHARLES

BLACK River and Eden Park residents have called out the State Government for failing to properly consult with the community about a looming road upgrade.

New maps of the Townsville Northern Access Intersections Upgrade, circulated between residents on Friday night, reveal how the roads will change as part of the upgrade.

They now fear changes will push more traffic into new housing developments and onto rural roads.

Eden Park resident Teresa Hope said the communities were outraged because there had not been proper consultation over the road changes.

“There is a new thoroughfare going to be put through the Eden Park community, a place we all bought land to build homes where our kids can ride their bikes on the street,” Ms Hope said.

“People who only recently bought blocks of land on the road that’s connecting through to this upgrade had no advice about this from developers or in their conveyancing surveys.”

She said they were outraged that the property they bought, away from busy roads in town, is now going to have a major road straight through the middle of it.

Black River resident Bill Flynn said the road would go in behind his property and would take away his privacy.

“I’ve been there for 36 years living on that block of ground and I don’t want to change,” Mr Flynn said.

“We’ve all got to go with progress in life … but consultation before anything was done would have been a lot better.”

Mr Flynn said another neighbour two doors down would have to go through a land resumption process with the government because of the upgrades. She also felt like she had not been properly consulted.

Kiersten Behan said the upgrades would devalue her home in Eden Park Road.

“We designed our house for a small

Behan said.

“We worked hard to get where we are ... everyone wants that great Australian dream.”

Ms Behan said the change would also make it unsafe because the current roads were not built for that much traffic.

“There’s a lady that walks her kids every morning and she walks on the road because there’s no room for footpaths.

“Are we meant to just walk in the gutter in our safe community?”

Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto said the community had a right to live a quiet lifestyle in this area.

Mr Dametto said TMR had used COVID-19 as an exquiet area,” Ms cuse for the limited consultation.

“It takes nothing to send out a letterbox drop or send out some mail to do some correspondence,” he said.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said community consultation was a key part of projects on the highway.

“We try to work with people for the best possible outcome but we can’t always please every single person but I think on the whole, people will be happy to see these upgrades in the northern suburbs of Townsville,” he said.

“It is a big growth corridor so the Bruce Highway has to keep pace with that and it will make a safer Bruce Highway.”