Victory Store, Nomad’s Rest petition TMR to change Gympie Bypass closure

Business owners still reeling from record flooding say a planned months-long road closure to allow work on the $1billion Gympie bypass will further damage their livelihoods and local jobs.

A group of Gympie businesses are up in arms over a plan to shut an arterial road as part of work on the $1bn bypass.

The group has launched a petition against Transport and Main Roads’ decision to close a 2km stretch of the Gympie Connection Rd from Monday July 25 and are calling on the State Government to find an alternative.

A post on the Victory Store’s Facebook page said this was to allow workers to “catch up” on bypass work delayed by this year’s floods and wet weather.

Victory Store owner Linda Lawson said in an online Change.org online document this was “purely a cost saving move for TMR, as to do the works with traffic control, keeping the road open would take them up to two years to complete”.

A parliamentary petition has now been launched by Ms Lawson.

Co-owner Peter Edwards said the impact of shutting the road for six months would be “colossal”.

Evi Munn, owner of Nomad‘s Rest on Gympie Connection Rd, is calling on State Government to not close the road for six months as part of work on the $1b bypass and instead find a way to keep it open.

It was something he said he only found out on Wednesday, July 6.

“We got a phone call saying ‘this is going to happen’,” Mr Edwards said

A TMR spokesman said nothing had been finalised amid “extensive consultation”.

“The closure of Gympie Connection Road during the works has not yet been confirmed, and we are continuing to investigate traffic management options,” he said.

“Our contractors have contacted many impacted stakeholders, including local businesses, in preparation.

“Once traffic management for this work has been confirmed, we will notify all impacted stakeholders before implementation.

Businesses affected by the potential six month closure of a 2km stretch of the Gympie Connection Rd have launched a petition asking for Transport and Main Roads to consider other options.

Nomad’s Rest caravan retreat owner Evi Munn said closing the road would take away the last remaining part of her business still able to operate since the February floods which washed large quantities of silt onto her property.

“If we have a significant weather event again, it’s not going to be six months; it’s going to be longer,” Mrs Munn said.

Moving all the traffic, including school buses and trucks, off the road and through town raised alarm bells too.

“There will be an accident, there will be multiple accidents,” Mrs Munn said.

“They’ve got to keep half the road open.”

TMR said there has been “extensive” consultation with the public over whether to close the road at the end of July, but several business owners said they only heard it would happen in the past week. Pictures: Josh Preston

Mrs Munn said she knew there were plans to close the road at some point but only thanks to social media.

“I was … driving up the road on Thursday and saw all these people outside the Victory Store (meeting),” Mrs Munn said.

“The following day I saw they had put something up (on Facebook).”

Mr Edwards said closing the road would remove “about 300 cars an hour” in passing traffic and there had so far been no mention of compensation.

The closure would impact on his ability to pay his two dozen staff members “if we don’t have that turnover”.

No-one was against the work being done, Mr Edwards said; it just needed happen in a way which minimised any impact as much as possible.