Opposition building to stage 3 plan
LOCAL politicians fear the Gold Coast Highway will become a carpark from Burleigh to the border if stage three of the light rail proceeds as planned.
A draft preliminary business case on stage three says the highway will become a “high amenity boulevard” used mostly by locals while passing traffic stays on the Pacific Motorway.
The report to council also predicts the southern corridor with a tram line can accommodate about a third of the expected 128,000 new dwellings needed in the city by 2041.
Southern based MPs and councillors warn that for four lanes to remain, properties will be resumed and parking lanes removed to accommodate the 8.6m wide tram track down the middle of the highway.
Councillor Daphne McDonald, who voted against the business plan, told the Bulletin: “You only have to go through Surfers where you are squeezing through (on one lane) where you have put the light rail in. I’ve got nothing against light rail, it’s just the wrong corridor.”
Burleigh MP Michael Hart and Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey believe the plan is flawed because an accident will cause gridlock with the realigned highway unable to cope.
“If they want to turn it into a single lane road with light rail in the middle of it they will completely clog the road,” Mr Hart said.
“The issue with the M1 is one accident in one spot, if you don’t have the arterial road (the Highway), it will turn into a car park. To suggest to close the arterial road is just ludicrous.”
The report shows the council completed a Strategic Business Case which created the Gold Coast Southern Urban Corridor to deal with traffic congestion and urban sprawl.
If the Pacific Motorway was upgraded from six lanes from Mudgeeraba to Tugun in the next decade, it would “reinforce the benefit of the light rail” extended from Broadbeach to Burleigh and finally Coolangatta.
“The M1 upgrade provides a traffic route for vehicles that may otherwise have sought to use the Gold Coast Highway, making it more feasible for the Highway to be managed as a high amenity local boulevard that accommodates light rail and mostly local traffic,” the report said.
“By the same token, providing light rail to service future urban development in the coastal corridor will reduce local trips on the M1, thereby prolonging its ability to meet vital interstate and regional functions.”
Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey agrees with Mr Hart, who supports an inland route to Reedy Creek linking up to the heavy rail transport corridor to the border. “I’ve warned everyone that to make it (light rail) pay they will have to take it to the border. We will have to build stackers,” Ms Stuckey said.
The majority of Palm Beach residents were opposed to light rail due to land resumptions in the tight corridor and impact of future highrises on the building village cafe culture, she added.
“If you really want to maximise the locals using light rail, you need a 500m buffer each side. The Gold Coast Highway doesn’t offer bang for your buck.
“It’s so close to the sea. If you look at the foot traffic from the seaside, there’s only 100m there. And you won’t get stackers along Jefferson Lane. No one will build there with climate change and sea rises.”
Bulletin view, P62