Priority should be given to Gateway and Bermuda street merges in future funding

THE Bermuda Street and Gateway merges are the two Pacific Motorway troublespots which must be fixed before other planned upgrades if the highway is to be rid of congestion.

A small petrol tanker rollover on Compton Road near the Gateway Motorway merge caused traffic jams along the notorious stretch. Pic Tim Marsden

THE Bermuda Street and Gateway merges are the two Pacific Motorway troublespots which must be fixed before other planned upgrades, if the highway is to be rid of congestion.

Planners within the Transport Department know that the next major Gold Coast upgrade which extends the six-lanes from Mudgeeraba south to Robina, will only push the traffic congestion further south.

Burleigh MP Michael Hart has obtained an insight into what transport officers believe were the priority upgrades after a private briefing on the Gold Coast.

On the Coast section of the M1, it means the upgrades need to leapfrog sections, rather than the traditional way of widening lanes section by section along the route.

The findings are backed up by Infrastructure Australia which yesterday listed the Gateway Motorway merge south of Brisbane, along with Bruce Highway upgrade on the Sunshine Coast as priority projects.

“Fixing the merge at the Gateway is vital,” Mr Hart told the Bulletin.

“It causes major traffic congestion out of Brisbane and could cause issues for the Commonwealth Games for anybody coming from Brisbane, such as athletes housed there.

“As far as widening the Robina to Burleigh exit, what will that fix?

“Not much apart from the problems caused by merging from three to two lanes, so again what is all the noise and discussion about?”

The federal and state governments had to address “the real issue” which was M1 congestion south of the Bermuda Street merge which causes traffic to bank up further back at Robina.

“Widening the M1 north of Bermuda won’t fix anything – other than just move the problem a little bit further south,” Mr Hart said.

The Burleigh MP acknowledged the Mudgeeraba to Robina M1 widening was listed as the next major M1 project and the order of works could not be reversed.

But he said Main Roads planners had told him the section upgrade would achieve little unless major work was continued at the same time on the Bermuda interchange at Reedy Creek.

Infrastructure Australia chief executive Philip Davies yesterday announced the board had positively assessed business cases for upgrades of the Bruce Highway upgrade between Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway and the Gateway Motorway merge.

“The Gateway Motorway merge upgrade will provide additional capacity for the Pacific Motorway between Tugun and Brisbane, the busiest road corridor in South East Queensland which sees an average of 78,500 vehicles travelling southbound per day,” Mr Davies said.

“We are confident that the Bruce Highway and Gateway Motorway merge upgrades will go some way to easing the capacity constraints currently impacting South East Queensland’s road networks.

“We look forward to monitoring the progress of these important projects.”

State Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the announcement cemented what the M1 delegation had been saying all along.

The delegation to Canberra on Wednesday, when Mr Bailey and Mayor Tom Tate met with Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher, failed to resolve a deadlock about funding.

“These projects are of national significance,” Mr Bailey said.

“They are part of the National Land Transport Network and should be funded 80-20, not 50-50 as the Federal Government would have us believe.

“The interesting thing about this latest report is that it has also changed the category of the M1 Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes upgrade to National Connectivity.

“National priority, national connectivity, National Land Transport Network – I’m not sure how many more national viewpoints the Federal Government needs to prove this should be majority funded by them.”