Logan Motorway, Gateway Motorway see jumps in traffic following roadwork completion

Traffic has jumped on southeast Queensland’s two busiest toll roads, with one of the region’s most notorious congestion nightmares now fixed.

TRAFFIC has surged on southeast Queensland’s two busiest toll roads, with their operator spruiking a 20-minute cut to travel times.

The Logan and Gateway motorways saw 3.1 and 3.8 per cent growth, respectively, over the September quarter.

Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton told the company’s annual general meeting that the recently completed Logan Enhancement Project had fixed a notorious commuter headache along the Logan Mwy.

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“Before the upgrade, it could take up to 45 minutes to travel just 500 metres to get onto the Logan,” Mr Charlton said. “Now that trip is taking about five minutes.”

The stretch in question is the Wembley Rd on-ramp onto the toll road.

Transurban said travel times along the whole Logan Mwy were about 20 minutes faster today than they were before the upgrade.

Transurban said could take up to 45 minutes in peak hour just to get onto the Logan Mwy from Wembley Rd, which has now been fixed. Picture: File.

A similar project on the Gateway Mwy also wrapped up in January.

The upgrades however took cars and trucks off the company’s other roads, with a 2.1 per cent decline in trips through the Clem7 and a soft 1.3 per cent growth for the AirportLinkM7.

Overall growth across Brisbane grew by 2.7 per cent in the quarter, compared with last September quarter, above the national average of 1.8 per cent.

Its worst performing Queensland asset was the Go Between Bridge in Brisbane, which saw traffic shrink 2.4 per cent.

The Gateway Mwy also saw a big jump in the September quarter compared to 2018, after an upgrade project was completed. Picture: Mark Calleja

Transurban Queensland group executive Sue Johnson however defended the link between the city and South Brisbane.

“The Go Between Bridge is performing as expected,” Ms Johnson said, pointing to its average daily use of 11,000 commuters.

“When you look at it in context, that’s 11,000 less trips on the Victoria Bridge or 11,000 less trips on the William Jolly,” she said.

Ms Johnson also said the current pipeline of infrastructure in Queensland was a positive, despite Transurban’s chairman Lindsay Maxstead calling for politicians in Canberra to fast track infrastructure spending nationwide.