Council rules out highrise at westside traffic hot spot

Claims a highrise will be allowed at one of Brisbane’s worst roundabouts are wrong, Council says.

Construction on the Indooroopilly roundabout upgrade will start next year. Picture: Renae Droop

Brisbane’s top infrastructure tsar has ruled out selling leftover land from the Indooroopilly roundabout upgrade for residential highrise.

Council owns the land within the roundabout island, which is leased to a car dealership.

A business case for the roundabout upgrade, released recently, flagged that unused land could be sold to the private sector to offset the $126 million cost of building a flyover and T-intersection.

“After upgrading of the intersection, the unused existing road reserve and the excess land within the Indooroopilly roundabout present an opportunity for redevelopment and landscape/public realm improvements,’’ the business case said.  

Councillor Nicole Johnston (Tennyson) said she feared land could be sold for highrise development.

However, Council Infrastructure chair David McLachlan ruled that out.

“There has been no decision made about use of any remnant land at the project conclusion, but the claim this land will be used for highrise apartments is wrong,’’ he said.

He also denied Cr Johnston’s claims that Council’s traffic study had ignored the needs of residents south of the river, who are currently stuck in traffic in peak hour stretching from the roundabout back over the Walter Taylor Bridge to Oxley Rd in Sherwood.

Option 16b, Council's preferred option to upgrade Indooroopilly roundabout.

“It’s untrue to say Council didn’t take into consideration the needs of residents south of the river,’’ Cr McLachlan said.

“Traffic modelling for the project captured a significant area including a section on the south side of Walter Taylor Bridge and the Allwood St intersection.’’

Cr Johnston conceded there were “some good aspects’’ to the project but said the long-term benefits “seem very minor’’.

“(The business case) doesn’t include travel time savings per se, but an estimated small reduction in the waiting time at 2031,’’ she said in her latest e-newsletter to residents.

“The report does not include a detailed design, but it is clear the project was conceived without any detailed consideration of the traffic requirements of residents on the south side of the bridge.

“Allwood St is the limit of the project in a southerly direction and no details on any traffic modelling or impacts to this intersection are included.

“It is also clear that the preferred option was only determined very late in project development and that several other viable options were ignored.’’

Council chooses design to fix notorious chokepoint

$25m Federal Budget boost for roundabout

COUNCILLOR JOHNSTON’S CONCERNS:

- the stated project aim to prioritise east-west traffic on Moggill Rd and potential impact for Coonan St AM traffic

- possible further highrise development on unused project land around the new intersection

- the lack of upgrades between Allwood St and the bridge and additional turning pressure on the congested McDonalds intersection

- the lack of safe dedicated off-road cycling facilities

- extremely poor and unsafe access to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre across Moggill Rd and Stamford Rd

- no details about resumptions or resumption costs

- lack of details on the merge arrangements for Coonan St traffic

- very low benefit cost ratio of 2.08 (other options were even lower)

- extremely poor consultation summary

- construction cost estimate of $126m, which seems low

COUNCILLOR MCLACHLAN’S RESPONSES

- The project hasn’t prioritised any movement over others. The design ensures the intersection does not adversely impact any movements. There is a projected time saving for Coonan St traffic

- Vehicles that previously travelled to Keating St from Moggill Rd and turned left into Keating St will need to travel south to the Allwood/Coonan St intersection. This will have minimal impact to operations at the Allwood S (McDonalds) intersection

- the business case states only that the excess land presents an opportunity for redevelopment and landscape/public realm improvements

- the project includes 250m of new and safe shared path facilities for cyclists on the eastern side of Coonan St, from Moggill Rd to Keating St

- there will be a new inbound on-road bike lane on Moggill Rd and two new pedestrian crossings, improving connectivity across Coonan St and Moggill Rd (and therefore access to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre). The signalised crossing has been moved closer to the predominant pedestrian route from Nelson Pde across Moggill Rd, which will provide a safe connection across Stamford Rd for pedestrians

- any cost benefit ratio over 1 provides a financial benefit. A ratio of 2.08 is considered very good for a project of this scale

- the consultation summary contains highlights of topics of interest for different suburbs, based on the project team’s analysis of hundreds of pieces of feedback