Traffic snarls plague $110m road works at deathtrap hot spots on Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd
Long-suffering motorists driving between two major southeast Queensland cities have been warned to expect at least three more months of traffic snarls despite a $133 million cash splash to fix three deathtraps. VIDEO: DRIVE THE ROAD
Logan
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Long-suffering motorists driving between Cleveland and Logan have been warned to expect at least another three months of delays despite a massive $133 million cash splash to rectify three local deathtraps.
The three major hot spots on the 23km stretch of Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd are at Anita St and Serpentine Creek Rd at Redland Bay and Kruger Rd at Carbrook.
Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd, which runs into Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd, is the main thoroughfare between Logan and Redland.
But the road works, which have been underway for more than 10 months on some parts of the road, will not result in four lanes and dual carriageways.
Exasperated motorists said the installation of traffic lights at Redland Bay’s Anita St started in August, where workers have been stopping traffic during peak hours and also at night on weekends.
Residents at Anita St lobbied for more than 20 years to get the lights to allow them to safely turn from Anita St north on to Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd, where it is currently single-lane carriageway.
State MP Kim Richards allocated $60 million to widen the road at Anita St to four lanes in August and said it would be completed over three stages but was unable to give an end date.
She said the rollout included $5 million to install some long-awaited traffic lights at the notorious Redland Bay T-intersection and $37 million to widen the road outside Victoria Point State High School to four lanes.
The first stage, which included footpaths, road resurfacing, a pedestrian crossing and bike paths was completed for $3 million.
Since then, the package has increased to $110 million along the road towards Cleveland.
The Anita St lights will be the 14th set on the 11.5km stretch of road between Redland Bay and Cleveland.
Bowman MP Andrew Laming said the work at Anita St was taking too long and said Redland residents had missed out on a government funding windfall.
“There are a lot of services to move under (Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd) the road at Anita St but this is 12 months on and this is still not completed,” he said.
“That is a very short segment of road – you can see from one end to the other.
“Of all the federal Covid money that we gave out last year in little bits to the state government for councils to build roads and infrastructure on the islands, none of that came to Redlands.
“The small amount of money that did make its way into the southern part of Redland city is being spent on guard rails and safety upgrades and not widening the road.”
At the southern end of Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd, outside the Carbrook State School, complaints have been about months of traffic snarls after road works which have resulted in the road being narrower.
The stretch of road is less than 3km from where residents have complained that $3 million of works at Riedel Rd have made turning left into that road dangerous.
Macalister MP Melissa McMahon said she had launched an investigation into the Riedel Rd turn-off.
Mrs McMahon said more than $19.5 million of federal and state money had been allocated for guardrails and line marking and roadside clearances along Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd.
A further $4.35 million of state money will be used to install traffic lights and a turning lane at Kruger Rd, at Carbrook State School, Kimberley College and Calvary Christian College.
“The road widening be
tween California Creek Rd and Mt Cotton is still in early planning,” Mrs McMahon said.
“That would have to be done before the more eastern parts of Beenleigh-Redland Bay Rd.”
Another deathtrap on Cleveland-Redland Bay Rd, which was allocated a slice of the funding pie this week, is at the intersection with Serpentine Creek Rd, where a 69-year-old Wynnum West woman died after colliding with a truck in July 2020.
That crash was less than 1km from where Redland Bay mother of three Mersina Axiom tragically lost her life after her car collided with a ute on Cleveland Redland Bay Rd in February last year.
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