Paul Weston: Our fastest growing and slowest moving suburb on the Gold Coast

TRAFFIC on a northern Gold Coast street has become so bad each morning that it can take 23 minutes to crawl just 150m at peak hour. And locals are furious.

A FURIOUS commuter explodes over traffic gridlock, declaring on social media that it has just taken 23 minutes to crawl 150 metres.

The anger is palpable as the driver, a resident of the rapidly growing Pimpama area off the M1 in the city’s north, then unloads: “Everyone in this area is just done with the bull**** responses we get from elected representatives.

Frustrated motorists in suburban Gold Coast streets about to head to Exit 49 on the M1. Photo: John Wolski

“It’s okay to spend, what ... $60 million to film Dora the (expletive) Explorer in Qld but the lives of people who pay taxes in the first place is right down the ladder of ‘we just don’t give a (expletive)’!!! Pathetic.”

To find out what is going on, take this drive with me along the Pacific Motorway, to about 30km north of Surfers Paradise where we find Australia’s fastest growing suburb — and its slowest moving.

Driving north on the M1, look to your right to the escarpment above the southbound lanes. Behind that is one of the Gold Coast’s worst intersections.

You will have plenty of time to contemplate all of this. As your car approaches Exit 49 at Pimpama, around 8am, Brad the traffic guy on ABC 91.7 warns of an accident ahead at Beenleigh.

As the traffic grinds to a halt, several northbound vehicles head on to the ramp on the western side of the motorway.

Halfway up the ramp is a long line-up of red brake lights.

Across the highway bridge, at a roundabout, stands Coomera MP Michael Crandon.

The LNP backbencher, who under changed electorate boundaries is responsible for both sides of the motorway, is not one for cheap publicity stunts. He has no leadership ambitions.

Michael Crandon just wants to sort out a political mess. Standing on the overhead bridge, he makes his first point — everyone is not just heading to Brisbane, the traffic south to the Gold Coast is just as busy.

FEDERAL BUDGET 2018: BILLIONS FOR M1 GOLD COAST

Yalwalpah Road at Pimpama during morning peak hour just off the M1.

He points east to a roundabout and Yalwalpah Road. Just one lane feeding into it.

“This traffic is not an issue going on to the M1. It’s an issue getting on to this roundabout to head south and go across the highway,” Mr Crandon says.

He says the council roads feeding local traffic on to or across the M1 are too narrow.

“Yalwalpah Road is a classic example. We have a one-lane road until just before the roundabout before the M1,” he says.

Yalwalpah Road is on the eastern side of the highway. Traffic can be so heavy you’d take your life into your hands trying to sprint across it.

Until now, the traffic congestion debate has been about the M1 and the political argument about how much the federal and state governments will tip in to fund a $2 billion fix to widen it to eight lanes to Tugun.

But the biggest challenge for workers headed to the tourist strip and parents to drop off their children for schools is getting on to the motorway.

Looking east from the roundabout where Mr Crandon stands, the traffic along Yalwalpah Road is at a standstill. Where are these cars coming from? The line-up of stalled vehicles stretches for several kilometres.

“Two kilometres east of here is the epicentre of the fastest growing region in Queensland and fourth fastest in Australia,’’ he says.

“That’s official ABS statistics. We have the middle of Pimpama down the road here.”

GET A NEW TABLET WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THE GOLD COAST BULLETIN

Aerial image of Pimpama taken in November 2011. Picture: Nearmap.

Just after 8am on a weekday, the traffic on the local road is at standstill. Where are these cars coming from? The line-up of stopped vehicles stretches for up to three kilometres.

Decades ago Pimpama was idyllic, with dairy cattle grazing in the paddocks and among the rolling green hills of farmland, an escape from Brisbane and the Glitter Strip. There was a tight school community on the western side of the highway of fewer than 100 students.

Today schools of 800 are expanding classroom blocks within years of being built. The population of more than 8000 is growing about 2000 a year, a 35 per cent increase.

Motorists on the single-lane each way country road are waiting up to 35 minutes in the morning peak.

The solution? First priority has to be to build an extra lane, about 250m long. Later, a new link for a separate left lane to cut through south of the roundabout to the M1.

But this means the council, with this ratepayer-owned road, and the State Government overseeing the highway interchanges, must work together.

“That’s exactly right. It’s a council and State Government issue, a combination. The roundabout up here and overpass here are a State Government issue,” Mr Crandon says.

“We have been fighting for an upgrade for this particular Exit 49 overpass for a long time now. The other issue is Yalwalpah Road. I’ve run petitions on it.

Aerial image of Pimpama taken in June 2017. Picture: Nearmap.

“They’ve been knocked back. There’s been some talk about some eventual solution some time down the road. But that’s not good enough. These people have been putting up with this for far too long.”

The Bulletin is about to relaunch a ‘Golden Age’ campaign, to build on the city’s success from the Commonwealth Games. A good start would be laying 250m of bitumen to kickstart the road infrastructure necessary so workers can get to work and parents can drive their kids to school on time.