Pacific Motorway and Centenary Highway named and shamed as state’s slowest during peak hour

These are the slowest sections of road in southeast Queensland where motorists are wasting hundreds of hours sitting in traffic jams, prompting concerns from the state’s peak motoring body about Olympic gridlock. CHECK THE MAP

Construction on the M1 northbound has hampered speeds but the opening of the Underwood Rd overpass has sped up traffic heading southbound. Picture: TMR

It’s official. The slowest stretch of state-owned road in the southeast remains the M1 through Logan, where drivers spent the equivalent of a whole day sitting in traffic jams in March.

The statistic prompted fears of gridlock during the 2032 Olympics and calls from the RACQ, state’s peak motoring body, for upgrades to Brisbane’s “orbital” road network starting with the Centenary Highway.

RACQ traffic and safety engineering manager Greg Miszkowycz said the majority of roads across the southeast, including motorways, were all slower during peak hours compared to 2019.

RACQ traffic and safety engineering manager Greg Miszkowycz. Picture: Contributed

He said the Pacific Motorway and the Centenary Highway and Western Freeway both needed substantial upgrades to save the southeast from gridlock during the 2032 Olympic Games.

“RACQ welcomes all the road upgrades on the Pacific Motorway and the Centenary Highway because they are two main traffic pressure points,” he said.

“The delays are not surprising as we do not have an effective orbital road so motorists from the west can bypass Brisbane’s busier northern suburbs to get on to the Bruce Highway.

“The Centenary Motorway is acting as a western bypass.”

Data from the Transport Department for March showed that the 14km northbound strip of the Pacific Motorway south of the Logan River to the Underwood Rd overpass recorded one of the slowest trip times this year including during peak rush times.

The stretch of road, a major thoroughfare from The Gold Coast into Brisbane and one of the major transport routes for the Games, usually takes an average six minutes to travel.

But on March 6 at 6.45pm it became one of the state’s major bottlenecks with traffic grinding to a halt on that stretch of road with exasperated motorists taking more than two hours and 20 minutes to travel the distance after a two-car crash.

Upgrades to the Pacific Motorway, between the Gateway Motorway at Eight Mile Plains and Springwood saved peak-hour motorists 2 minutes and 32 seconds every week.

The slowest average speed northbound between the Gateway Motorway and Brisbane, was 34km/h during the morning from 7am to 9am.

That was slightly better in the afternoon when the peak-hour speed was 44km/h southbound.

The Pacific Motorway was one of 31 state roads across the southeast where motorists experienced bottlenecks and travel times took 10 times longer than usual.

The second most congested stretch of road, according to the data from March, was also on the Pacific Motorway northbound, along the 9.2km stretch of road from south of the Logan River to the Paradise Rd junction.

The trip would usually take about 6.56 minutes but on Friday, March 17 at 4pm motorists were subjected to an annoying extra 1 hour and 6 minutes as road works and a broken down car brought traffic to a standstill.

The third slowest strip of road, according to the data, was from Bald Hills to Carseldine, a 6km trip which usually takes an average of 2 minutes 54 seconds but on March 10 at 11.45am, it took motorists nearly an hour with the trip clocking in at an infuriating 56 minutes and 30 seconds.

The fourth slowest trip time was recorded from the intersection of Beaudesert and Algester roads to the intersection of Beaudesert and Boundary roads, a 4.73km trip that usually takes an average of 5 minutes.

But on March 8 at 6.45am, motorists were crawling along with the trip time blowing out to 45 minutes following early morning road congestion in and around Goodna and Wacol.

Other stretches of road that recorded trips taking 10 times more than the average included the Pacific Motorway at Hawthorne St to south of the Captain Cook Bridge.

The Mount Lindesay Highway from the interchange with Browns Plains Rd to the intersection of Beaudesert and Illaweena roads at Parkinson was another bottleneck as was Kessels Rd and Logan Rd intersection to the intersection of Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd and Newnham Road.

Sandgate and Beams roads to the intersection of Sandgate Rd and Zillmere Rd took 16.52 times longer than average and South Pine Rd and Old Northern Rd to Kremzow Rd 11 times longer.

However, there has been some reprieve with a $400 million, 3km upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway from Granard Rd, Rocklea, to just east of the Oxley Rd boosting speeds at both peak times.

In afternoon peak-hour times from 3.15pm to 5.15pm, the slowest stretch of road in southeast Queensland was outbound from Brisbane to the Centenary Bridge.

The state government is upgrading the Centenary Bridge, one of the slowest during peak times this year. Picture: Contributed

Motorists were crawling along at 23k/h compared to the average speed of 70km/h.

Northside afternoon drivers suffered more than southside motorists with the lowest average speed of 23km/h recorded on the Gympie Arterial and Gympie Rd, outbound from Kedron to the Bruce Highway.

Sandgate Rd, outbound from Nundah to Deagon, also clocked 25km/h, the second slowest time during the afternoon peak.

And the beginning of the working week was no longer the worst day for traffic snarls with the average peak speed on Mondays and Tuesdays 15 per cent faster on the Gympie Arterial.

A spokesman for the Main Roads Department said those on the Gateway Motorway and Southern Cross Way, southbound from the Bruce Highway to Kingsford Smith Dr, fared better with speeds only slightly slower during afternoon peaks.

The spokesman said multiple large-scale construction upgrades, COVID-19 and road flooding in the past three years had made it difficult to gauge which roads had improved speeds.

“The government is undertaking significant road infrastructure and operational improvements to counteract the increase in road traffic volumes on the Bruce Highway and Pacific Motorway,” a spokesman said.

“These improvements will improve travel times and outweigh temporary drops in speed due to construction.”