Fastest border checkpoints: How to avoid M1 chaos

Long delays of up to two hours at the Queensland border could soon be eased with a new checkpoint set to open. Here’s your best options to avoid the M1 gridlock.

Motorists have endured delays of up to two hours after Annastacia Palaszczuk slammed shut the Queensland border to Sydney a week ago, but relief could soon be at hand.

A fourth Gold Coast checkpoint is set to open on New Year’s Eve in a bid to ease congestion.

Gold Coast police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the new checkpoint at Miles St at Kirra, would open at 7am on Thursday just in time for traditional cross-border New Year’s Eve celebrations.

The checkpoint is designed to take pressure off the existing Gold Coast border crossings on the M1 Pacific Motorway at Currumbin, Gold Coast Highway at Bilinga and Griffith St at Coolangatta.

Hours-long traffic jams have been experienced on the Pacific Motorway at the Queensland-NSW border. Picture: Jason O'Brien

The M1 checkpoint has been the centre of much of the gridlock, with traffic stretched back for 10km in the lead-up to Christmas.

Supt Wheeler said peak delays of 90 minutes were experienced over the Christmas long weekend.

He said the Miles St checkpoint would relieve some of the pressure around the Coolangatta-Tweed road network which has been clogged with rat-runners hoping to avoid lengthy queues at the three main checkpoints.

Another checkpoint will be set up at Miles St. Picture: Jason O'Brien

Supt Wheeler said police and other authorities had moved rapidly to open the new checkpoint, which took two months to open during the first border closure from March to November.

“We’ve worked really hard to get this open as quickly as we can, because we do want to make sure that both sides of the border are looked after,” he said.

“We understand that they’re (the checkpoints) impacting on people’s daily lives, particularly people travelling to work every day.”

Supt Wheeler said almost 40 police reinforcements had been deployed from across the state to help man the checkpoints, along with about 30 State Emergency Service personnel.

He said it had been a ‘a really mammoth and complex task’, with more than 540,000 border passes issued so far.

Long delays on the Pacific Motorway. Picture: Jason O'Brien

“That tells us a lot of people want to come into Queensland,” he said.

“We’ve also, unfortunately, had to turn away over 300 vehicles containing over 700 people, and issued 10 infringement notices for $4003, predominantly for people who have provided false information.”