Gold Coast light rail bosses hint at Burleigh Hill tunnel proposal as one of the favourite options for stage three

GOLD Coast councillors could be asked to build a tunnel through Burleigh Hill for light rail — with GoldLinQ’s technical director and their own project manager saying it makes sense to build a track near the beach.

A tunnel through Burleigh Hill is firming as one of the favoured options in early planning for stage three of the Gold Coast light rail. Picture: Steve Holland.

GOLD Coast councillors could be asked to build a tunnel through Burleigh Hill for light rail — with GoldLinQ’s technical director and their own project manager saying it makes sense to build a track close to the beach.

The council’s Light Rail Project and Corridor Development manager Ken Deutscher told a light rail conference the Gold Coast’s light rail extension south should be located nearby crowds of people instead of on sparsely-populated land to the west.

“If you go around the back of the hill somewhere because it’s easy and there’s no one around there, you’ll end up with a station in the wrong place,” he said.

A tunnel through Burleigh Hill is firming as one of the favoured options in early planning for stage three of the Gold Coast light rail. Picture: Steve Holland

“We’ll be doing some more planning and consultation in the future about how we get to Burleigh and how we eventually get over the hill but the short answer is you really want to build these things where people want to go.”

GoldLinQ technical director Phil Chipman said tracks that could be built in a straight line, instead of veering away, were also more workable from an engineering perspective.

“GoldLinQ has to have one eye on delivery and the ease of construction and also at the end of the day it’s about providing a service to the community and passengers,” he said.

“Part of our charter is to think like a passenger so from our perspective it’s what’s the quickest and most efficient service that we can provide and generally that means it’s a straight line.”

Council opened tenders for light rail stage three in late 2016, with the first hurdle in the $1.4 million design project aimed at plotting the best tram route from Broadbeach to Burleigh.

As well as navigating either around or straight through Burleigh Headland, in the future officers will be faced with challenges like getting across Currumbin and Tallebudgera Creeks.

Stage three of the Gold Coast light rail also involves extending south to the Gold Coast Airport and into Coolangatta.

Council project manager Ken Deutscher said officers would work closely with locals over the next six months in an attempt to settle on plans for the best possible route for stage three.

Mr Deutscher said a lot of the work council officers were doing at present was aimed at meeting criteria for state and Commonwealth funding.

“Our next milestone is we’re hoping to complete the preliminary business case for the section to Burleigh by around the middle of this year,” he said.