Gold Coast’s M1 tradie rush hour starts at 4am

ACROSS four lanes on the Pacific Motorway are beaming headlights. It could be late evening peak rush, but this is the northbound run — and it’s just after 4am.

ACROSS four lanes on the Pacific Motorway are beaming headlights. It could be late evening peak rush, but this is the northbound run — and it’s just after 4am.

The pilgrimage of tens of thousands of motorists is getting earlier as people jostle to get to work on time and avoid the inevitable morning gridlock on Queensland’s most important road, the M1.

The highway is the heart of the state’s economy, linking its two biggest cities and carrying tens of millions of workers, day-trippers and tourists each year.

However, it is at breaking point.

The M1 lights up — after 4am, the traffic takes off from Coomera. Picture Glenn Hampson

To combat the anger of being late for work, standing up clients or missing flights at Brisbane airport, Gold Coasters are forced to start their day earlier than ever before.

Motorists say the daily 80km, 45-minute trip to the city can blow out to 80 minutes. If a crash occurs they are stranded in traffic for up to three hours.

A tradie leaving the Coomera pit stop, juggling a takeaway coffee and sandwiches, is too busy to stop to chat.

“I start at 3am every day. Obviously from here I need more time, I’m travelling up to the Sunshine Coast. We tradies do get to leave early,” he said.

Tradies stop for breakfast at Upper Coomera from 4am. Picture Glenn Hampson

Former top cop Jim Keogh, who spent three years on the highway, told the Gold Coast Bulletin: “The early morning from four to five is getting gridlock, and from two to three on the way home.

“The frustration, the panic — they know they will be late for work. It takes road rage to a whole new level.

“Stop starting on 110km/h is dangerous. One lapse and the vehicle in front stops and you have a collision.”

By 4.30am the tradie traffic northbound on the M1 at Coomera suddenly builds up. Picture Glenn Hampson

But the retired senior copper cautions that it is not just road accidents which can cause a fatality.

The very young and elderly waiting in stalled traffic for hours, desperate to get home for their medication, are at extreme health risk.

“I was there for three hours (during the Nerang River truck crash last year). It was soaring heat,” Mr Keogh said.

Former top cop Superintendent Jim Keogh — he knows the M1 daily grind trip to Brisbane better than anyone. Photo Jamie Hanson

The latest data shows about 18,000 vehicles a day use major connection roads like Exit 57 at Oxenford, which is more than 3000 over the capacity for the ramp’s design.

By 5am on the overhead bridge to Dreamworld, a snakelike light trail appears southbound, the white stream gaining in strength.

It is astonishing to discover that first tradie rush is busier and bustling more than the 7am takeoff of white collar workers to Brisbane offices.

Commute drives wedge between family

LIFE is a balancing act for Tim Naylor and his family.

The 41-year-old commutes to Brisbane and Ipswich every day for his job as a recruitment manager, but he tries not to take the M1 anymore.

“I get the train because the traffic’s so bad,” Mr Naylor said. “I just find the drive back (at 4.30pm) would be 2.5 hours long.”

Sometimes he still needed to use the M1 and said he left for work earlier to get home to spend time with his family.

Tim Naylor with wife Donna Naylor and kids Maye, 8, and Indie, 6. Photo: Richard Gosling

“It’s a balancing act I suppose, to work in Brisbane and have the lifestyle of the Gold Coast,” he said, adding it placed a strain on his relationship with his family.

Last week his daughter, Maye, 8, asked him: “Will you be back tonight to say ‘night-night’ to me daddy?”

And his six-year-old son, Indie, wanted to spend time with him after work, leaving him torn between trying to help wife, Donna, prepare dinner or play with his son.

“From a personal perspective it eats into what you can do for yourself,” he said. “My wife and I enjoy exercising together, but it’s tricky to find time for things like that.”