Rainbow Beach local calls for upgrades to notorious coastal road
A renewed push is on to fix the the winding road that links Rainbow Beach to South East Qld, a road residents say has not changed in 17 years despite the huge surge in visitor numbers.
Gympie
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gympie. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A renewed push is on to fix the main road into Rainbow Beach, with one resident saying it has not changed in 17 years despite a huge surge in visitors in the wake of Covid.
Rainbow Beach resident Greg Lewis has called for improvements to the “neglected” 20km stretch between Rainbow Beach and the turn-off to Cooloola Cove, following a crash near Searys Creek on December 10, which he said was the tenth accident on the road since June 2023. Emergency crews were called to the scene after a vehicle hit a tree about 2pm. The driver was uninjured.
On December 12, a teenager suffered an arm injury in a crash between a motorcycle and a vehicle on the same road.
He was taken to Gympie Hospital in a stable condition.
Mr Lewis said this week it was a “matter of luck” there had not been several deaths on the road, which “needs a fairly significant investment to bring it up to a state that’s safe”.
The road had gotten “a lot busier” with the town becoming a tourist hot spot in the wake of Covid lockdowns, Mr Lewis said.
He said it was not uncommon to come across drivers across double lines and on the wrong side as they sought “better parts of the road to drive on”, even on blind corners and crests.
People sticking to the speed limit often found themselves overtaken by cars “zooming past”, he said.
He said the road’s risk was clear in state government crash records that showed 63 crashes on the 100km/h stretch since 2001.
This was compared to 11 crashes on a 100km/h stretch of the adjoining Tin Can Bay Rd.
However it was the latter now under investigation by Transport and Main Roads for new overtaking lanes.
On Friday, December 13, a TMR spokesman said the community had been invited to have its say on the proposed overtaking lanes on Tin Can Bay Rd, as it was a “high priority” issue due to traffic volumes.
“Managing community expectations where funding is limited and where projects must be prioritised across the state is an ongoing challenge,” the spokesman said.
He said crash history was “an important factor when assessing crash risk, and that TMR also considered other factors such as current and project future traffic volumes, sight distance, separation between opposing vehicles and road design features, monitored driver behaviour and community feedback”.
There was currently no funding to upgrade Rainbow Beach Rd but “TMR will investigate community concerns together with technical data”.
“Any proposed improvements will need to be assessed against other competing statewide priorities for funding.”
When asked about a decade-old suggestion of building a bridge between Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach to open a second route the spokesman said no planning had been undertaken for such a project.
Building one, which would span about 2km from shore to shore, would require “substantial capital works” and extensive planning and funding.
Gympie MP and Agriculture Minister Tony Perrett has been approached for comment.
Mr Lewis’ call follows a near-decade long campaign by Rainbow Beach businessman Tony Stewart for safety upgrades along the Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay Roads.
In 2021, Mr Stewart presented a petition of more than 13,000 signatures to the state government calling for upgrades to the two roads.
‘Significant uncertainty’: Mapping the impact of weekend deluge on SEQ
Large parts of South East Queensland are currently under flood watch with a new map highlighting just how widespread the rainfall has been.
Fluhed sdsd sd sdsd sdsd sd
It costs local councils less than the price of a cup of coffee per resident to fluoridate the water supply for a whole year, new analysis has revealed.