Flashback: Cost of Gold Coast M1 Upgrade blowout by $120 as Borbidge Government adds to work

THE M1 is the Gold Coast’s busiest road and often falls victim to gridlock and traffic accidents. So how did the cost of its upgrade blow out by $120 million?

THE Commonwealth Games are just weeks away and there are fears of ‘trafficgheddon’ striking the Gold Coast as thousands of extra cars hit the city’s roads.

The M1 is the main focus on the fears, with some road experts wanting that drivers should avoid the Pacific Motorway “at all costs”.

The concerns come 20 years after the upgrade of the M1 itself was in the news as the Borbidge Government wrote-off a $120 million budget blowout in the project.

The cost of the M1 upgrade ballooned to $750 million as the Nationals Government announced its plans to increase the size of the roadworks.

Premier Rob Borbidge announced a ``broadening’’ of the project between Logan and the Gold Coast to include faster traffic interchanges, as well as better local access and environmental features.

May 22, 1998 — Roadworks on the Gold Coast Pacific Highway near Coomera

Mr Borbidge said the additional funds were a response to demands from community groups and stakeholders for more cross-motorway links and an extra interchange connecting with the Logan motorway.

“You probably only build a road like this once every 50 or 60 years,’’ the Surfers Paradise MP said.

“And on a project like this, the biggest in the country, you only get one chance. We always worked on the understanding that if we needed to supplement the original (budget) allocation, we would be prepared to do that.’’

Premier Rob Borbidge

But Roads Minister Vaughan Johnson said the extra budget would ensure no further changes to the road’s design, which now also included provisions for future high-occupancy transit lanes.

“We’ve now got the money in the budget for the later part of the next two years,’’ he said.

“That shows you just how fair dinkum we are.’’

The extra funding was a “fantastic achievement’’ for the people of Brisbane and the Gold Coast who were now “going to absolutely love the Borbidge Government for this’’.

Mr Johnson said the additional work would not change the road’s March 2000 completion date.

The Roadworks at Coomera

The motorway was partially funded by the Federal Government via a $150 million grant over 10 years.

Some of these funds were targeted at road improvements in the Tugun area once the Pacific Motorway was completed, Mr Johnson said.

“To date, the State Government has put an extra $744 million in the road system since it came to power, including an extra $155 million for roads outside the southeast corner,’’ he said.

But a week after the announcement the State Government admitted an urgent rethink was needed of its traffic management strategy.

It was attacked by opposition deputy leader and transport spokesman Jim Elder said the revised project would not deliver $120 million of improvements but was instead a “ploy” to conceal an “appalling blowout”.

Bob Higgins overlooking the M1 upgrade at Pimpama, November 1998.

Project director Bob Higgins told the Bulletin at the time the pace of the upgrade needed to be picked up.

“Commuter time is money and there is a lost opportunity to the community if there are delays,” he said.

“We would normally have speeds down to 60km/h during this phase but now traffic is travelling through the construction sits at 100km/h.

“That’s where you get into the additional cost of traffic management.”