Missing the connection

Push for an overpass to be added at Coomera

THE proposed Coomera Connector will itself need to be “connected” to a new overpass on the Pacific Motorway if the $2.4 billion alternative highway is to do its job and take up to 60,000 vehicles off the M1, say councillors.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates and Helensvale-based councillor William OwenJones are joining forces in lobbying both the State Government and LNP Opposition MPs to get a commitment for an overpass in the lead-up to next year’s state poll. Unless an overpass is added at Coomera, which would be at the northern end of the first stage of the planned Connector from Nerang, the new six-lane highway would be ineffective because traffic would continue to use the M1, they say.

Officers in a transport report to council this month predicted the Oxenford interchange, about to be upgraded, would face congestion in 10 years unless the Coomera Connector – planned to run from Nerang to Stapylton – and an overpass at Beattie Rd, Coomera, were built.

“We need to connect the proposed Coomera Connector,’’ Cr Owen-Jones told the Bulletin.

“The Coomera Connector actually needs to connect the east and west. The best location is from Beattie Rd across to Heathwood Dve.

“It has to be part of the works. There is no use having a Coomera Connector if it doesn’t connect with where people live. The schools are a big driver (of traffic congestion in the north). There are three large private catchment schools and Upper Coomera State College.”

Cr Gates estimated up to 8000 students were attending private and public schools in the Coomera area where campuses include primary and secondary students.

“The east-west connections are in terrible shape,” she said, referring to Exits 54 and 57.

“The traffic on Heathwood Dve queues for the whole length of the road at peak times.”

Cr Owen-Jones said the council had a “modest capital works budget’’ and was unable to invest in state roads. After the State Government late last month announced it would proceed with the second M1, Transport Minister Mark Bailey acknowledged the need for improved links.

But he said it was too early to predict which upgrades were needed because it would depend on design work.

Councillors who are to attend a transport committee meeting on November 28 expect an estimate for “design of the duplication of Heathwood Dve and bridge crossings”.