Mackay section of Bruce Highway has speed limit cut

A dangerous section of the Bruce Highway where a 69-year-old Mackay region man died earlier this year has had its speed limit permanently reduced to 80km/hr. DETAILS.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads has reduced the speed limit on the Bruce Highway between the Mackay Ring Road roundabout and Miclere Farleigh Rd in Glenella. Picture: Google Maps

A notorious section of the Bruce Highway has had its speed limit permanently reduced from 100km/hr to 80km/hr.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads has advised the new speed limit affects the highway between the Mackay Ring Road roundabout and Miclere Farleigh Road in Glenella.

It states the reduction follows a recommendation in its recent Road Safety Audit which has the support of the Traffic Advisory Committee.

Miclere-Farleigh Rd is about 300m north of the turn-off for Glendaragh Rd, which has long been a popular shortcut for Mackay residents as it morphs into Holts Rd and then connects to Mackay-Bucasia Rd, the arterial road for the Northern Beaches suburbs.

The Department of Main Roads and Transport has dropped the speed limit on the Bruce Highway to 80km/hr between the Mackay Ring Road roundabout and Miclere Farleigh Rd in Glenella, which covers the stretch with the turn-off to Glendaragh Rd/Holts Rd. Picture: Google Maps

But following the opening of the Mackay Ring Road in 2020, there was a significant increase in the number of motorists using Glendaragh and Holts Rd to either bypass Mount Pleasant and get on the Bruce Hwy quicker, or access the ring road to avoid the city and Nebo Rd.

Glenella homeowner Ken Kelly in 2021 said the rising traffic from Northern Beaches' drivers cutting across to the Ring Road and the Bruce Highway was amplifying safety concerns over an already dangerous Palm Ridge Dr intersection with Glendaragh Rd. Picture: Heidi Petith

But while residents living on streets off Glendaragh and Holts Rd successfully campaigned for Main Roads to slash the shortcut’s speed limit from 100km/hr to 80km/hr, the increase in traffic created a dangerous junction with drivers making their own risk assessments on when it was safe to pull out onto the 100km/hr zoned section of highway.

The hazards of that T-section were demonstrated earlier this year when a ute turned onto the highway from Glendaragh Rd and collided with a truck.

The ute’s driver, a 69-year-old Hampden man, died three weeks later.