Coomera connector: Second M1 plan stalls as MP Mark Boothman calls for 80km/h speed limit, four lane limit

A speed limit of just 80km/h is one of a series of demands being made on the proposed second M1 which could see the much-needed project stalled.

A GOLD Coast MP says his community is right behind building a second M1 to stop the snail trail to Brisbane every day.

But only if it is 80km/h not 110km/h, four lanes and not six, sound proof, and built from bitumen not concrete.

“It’s a local road,” Theodore MP Mark Boothman said yesterday. “It’s designed to take local traffic from the motorway. It shouldn’t be the equivalent speed of the M1.”

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How the Coomera Connector is expected to look.

The State Government last night laughed off the LNP’s position on the highway, saying “they’re a dog’s breakfast on the Coomera Connector. They cut it, then they said they wanted to build it but offered little to pay for it, and now want to slow it down before a shovel even hits the ground.”

The Coomera Connector is a gazetted arterial road that will run from Carrara to Stapylton and has been designed to take pressure off the M1. New mapping last month revealed the highway will run parallel to the M1 until the proposed Hope Island railway station, before veering sharply towards the coastline at the eastern edge of Pimpama and just west of Jacobs Well.

The proposed route of the Coomera Connector.

The State Government has committed $10 million for the current planning work for the project, which it had costed at $2.4 billion. The LNP claim it can be built for $500 million.

Mr Boothman wrote to Transport Minister Mark Bailey seeking a commitment about the design of the Coomera Connector after numerous complaints from constituents fearing the impact of increased noise levels.

In one letter, Mr Boothman says a resident “is seeking your assurances this roadway will not be greater than four lanes of traffic, will be speed limited to 80km per hour, will have capped noise barriers along populated areas and be constructed from bitumen rather than concrete”.

Mr Boothman added that the Minister would understand the resident “and many other Helensvale residents are anxious to be provided with those details”.

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Part of the route of the planned Coomera Connector.

Mr Bailey referred Mr Boothman to the transport website for details of the project. The transport website says the Coomera Connector will be “wide enough for up to six traffic lanes and is expected to include facilities for public transport and paths for walking and cycling”.

No mention is made of the road’s surface.

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Theodore MP Mark Boothman. Picture: Tim Marsden.

Mr Boothman has backed a new road in Facebook posts to residents, but says it will “need to be built with suitable sound walls, reduced speed limit and bitumen surface”.

“These requirements would easily allow the proposed local arterial link to fulfil its purpose of a local connection road.”

Mr Boothman told the Bulletin he believed the Coomera Connector should not have the 110km/h speed limit of the M1 but closer to 80 to 90km/h.

A spokesman for Mr Bailey said: “They’re a dog’s breakfast on the Coomera Connector. If Mark Boothman is serious about addressing noise concerns, both he and the LNP wouldn’t have cut the noise barriers program while they were in government.”

The spokesman said the Government would get on with the job of planning for the Coomera Connector and “get this project right” for the community.