Coomera Connector Gold Coast: Councillor questions state plans for $2.4B road

Questions are being raised about plans for the $2.4 billion Coomera Connector which appear to show the giant new arterial highway connecting with a single-lane local road.

A GOLD Coast councillor has questioned a proposed interchange on the $2.4 billion Coomera Connector.

Commuters were given their first look at how the road would transform the city’s north when new plans were released in June.

But Helensvale councillor William Owen-Jones has raised questions about the plans, which appear to show an interchange with Helensvale Road. It is currently a single-lane, east-west road.

Artist's impression - Coomera Connector approaching Arundel.

“I don’t seen why the state wouldn’t want to connect with Hope Island Rd, which is also a main road,” he said.

“Helensvale Rd is a city road which is already under strain.

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“It looks to me like they are trying to make it connect where it does not necessarily need to.”
Early stage works on the project have begun on what has been described as “one of the largest traffic-mapping projects in the city’s history”.

The Coomera Connector heading into Helensvale.

The Coomera Connector will be a six-lane, 45km arterial road to run from Nerang to Logan.

It is expected to take up to 60,000 vehicles off the M1 every day and was fully gazetted last year by the State Government.

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More than $20 million is being spent on early works and surveying in preparations for the business case.

It comes as the first results from community consultation conducted in November and December last year reveal strong support for the project.

Artist impression of Coomera Connector at Parkwood. Picture: TMR

The independent survey, commissioned by the State Government, found respondents wanted the Coomera Connector built to relieve pressure on the M1.

The release of the survey results came after northern Gold Coast residents on Tuesday went public with their concerns about the road and its impact on The Surrounds estate community.

More than 210,000 vehicles use the M1 around the Coomera River on its busiest days, and a significant portion is local traffic accessing the Gold Coast’s northern suburbs.

The road, formerly known as the intra-regional transport corridor (IRTC), has long been part of the State Government’s future plans to reduce congestion but was dumped by the former Newman government in 2013, against the wishes of the Gold Coast City Council.

The project was restored in 2015 and the Palaszczuk Government gazetted the Nerang to Coomera section in March 2016 and the Coomera Stapylton section in May 2017.

It later became a political football at the 2017 state election when the LNP Opposition pledged to build the project.