Flashback: Predictions the Gold Coast’s road system would fail by 2008 unless major upgrades were done

‘THE Gold Coast’s road network is a decade away from failing unless something is done’ — that was the stark warning contained within a transport plan to solve congestion on the Gold Coast.

MORE than $700 million will be spent upgrading the Gold Coast’s to solve the city’s long-running congestion issues.

The Gold Coast Bulletin this week revealed the Gold Coast City Council was pushing ahead with a massive road works packaged which will see new roads built throughout the city’s north.

Conversations around the city have this week been on transport, with multiple forms of infrastructure on the cards.

City leaders have revealed the renewed push for a ferry system running through the Gold Coast’s waterways, something which will come to a head later this month at a Gold Coast Waterways Authority board meeting.

The greater Gold Coast region today has a population of more than 600,000

Plans for the Gold Coast light rail’s third stage to Burleigh Heads have also been unveiled.

These big-ticket fixes to the city’s transport issues come 20 years to the week since the city received a stark warning about its future.

The Gold Coast’s road system would fail within 10 years unless a major transport management plan was implemented, according to the council’s traffic consultants in the first week of August 1998.

Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A Burleigh Heads station artist impression.

The warning was contained in a draft transport plan for the city, which recommended a $635 million light rail or busway system linking the coast’s major seaboard centres.

The City Transport Plan also recommended several other transport initiatives at a total cost of $3.26 billion by 2028.

They included:

* Ferry services linking The Spit, Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach through canals and waterways.

* A freight rail spur link for the Yatala industrial Area.

* A major overhaul over the city’s public transport system to provide buses priority, improve passenger information, provide interactive bus stops and trial more flexible bus and multi-hire taxi services.

The plan, which went up for public display that month and was promoted by council research which showed the amount of traffic on the Coast’s roads would double by 2015.

The M1 under construction in Mid-1998.

The Coast’s 369,550-strong population was expected to double before the year 2030, prompting the further warning that the time taken to complete some journeys would also double by 2018.

According to the council figures, cars or light commercial vehicles accounted for 80 per cent of trips taken within the city, while buses or trains accounted for 3 per cent and walking/cycling 15 per cent.

The plan revealed that car use was rapidly outstripping population growth, with figures suggesting it would increase 93 per cent between 1995 and 2011 compared to a 55 per cent increase in the population.

In 1998 the Gold Coast’s population was 369,550

“The Gold Coast’s transport system is reaching the point where it can adversely affect economic growth, the environment and the people’s quality of life,” the report said.

“Given the potential for growth in traffic and emission of pollutants to the environment, the city’s current transport is not on a viable path.”

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The Gold Coast, circa the late 1990s.

Then-Mayor Gary Baildon said he was confident the city would be able to deal with the increase in population.

With 20 years of hindsight it is now possible to see how drastically the city’s transport network has changed.

It took until mid-2014 for the Gold Coast’s light rail to start taking passengers, while a ferry system is now closer to reality.