Gympie Bypass to create traffic problems at Channon St, Noosa Rd

The long-awaited $1 billion Gympie Bypass will strip thousands of cars a day out of the city centre, but a new report has revealed the fresh issues it will cause and need to be fixed urgently.

The long-awaited $1 billion Gympie Bypass will transform the region when it opens in 2024, but a new report reveals the redirected traffic is likely to cause headaches elsewhere on the region’s roads.

The report, created by Gympie Regional Council as part of its work towards a new town plan in 2024, revealed the bypass is expected to strip about one-third of peak hour traffic off the highway running through the city.

This will have a knock-on effect for other parts of the region’s road networks, and those sections will need to be fixed urgently.

Flood, Noosa and Hall Roads, near the city’s southern tip, were identified problem spots.

The report says Flood Rd would serve as a “key connection” between the bypass and East Deep Creek’s industrial area, but the road itself was not suitable for the heavy traffic that will use it.

The rail overpass at Hall Rd, Glanmire, has been identified as a looming problem once the Gympie Bypass opens, with a new council report saying it will become a main route into the city but is not suitable to handle the increase in traffic expected to use it.

This same problem loomed at the single-lane Hall Rd bridge spanning the railway line.

The bridge was already a “pinch point”and substandard for heavy vehicles, yet would also become the main access point keeping Monkland connected to the world in the event of a major flood.

Dangerous sight lines at the intersection of Noosa and Brisbane Roads needed to be upgraded too.

Similar problems were expected to appear further north on the bypass, at the Gympie Connection Rd turn-off.

These problems were likely to be felt about 2km east of where the roads joined.

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The intersection of Horseshoe Bend and Stewart Tce (linking Gympie Connection Rd to Channon St) is expected to become a major route into town, used by drivers heading south along the new bypass, the report says, and as such it needs to be a priority for upgrading to handle the influx of traffic.

While traffic modelling suggested “minimal changes” to how much traffic will be directed from the bypass through the turn-off, the report says “it is highly likely that this route will become the main entrance to Gympie for highway traffic from the north”.

The report says Horseshoe Bend and Channon St will become a replacement for Tin Can Bay Rd and serve as the primary route in from the east.

Their current conditions, though, were not suitable to handle the increase in traffic.

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Compounding the problem was a number of intersections along Gympie Connection Rd, which will connect the bypass to these roads, and were already “insufficient” and would only be made worse as traffic volumes rose.

Widening Horseshoe Bend to cater to increased traffic was not an easy solution either.

Doing this risked impacting historic homes in the area, footpaths, landscaping, and powerlines, the report says.

It says the council’s position moving forward should be to engage with the state government in an effort to have these issues recognised as priorities in need of immediate attention.