How the Toowoomba Bypass was built after 50 years

The Toowoomba Bypass has been on the wish list of local leaders for over half a century and tomorrow the long-awaited road will finally open to motorists.

A cutting near Six Mile Cr on the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing during the media preview before opening, Friday, September 6, 2019. Picture: Kevin Farmer

THE Toowoomba Bypass has been on the wish list of local leaders for over half a century and tomorrow, on September 8, 2019, the long-awaited road will finally open to motorists.

The monumental road will open to motorists in the evening, following the conclusion and clean up of official open events, which include a bike ride and open day today and a marathon and ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow.

Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio said it was an historic weekend for the region.

"I think it's a monumental day in the history of the Toowoomba region and beyond," Cr Antonio said.

"It's something that's been advocated for for well over 50 years and it has finally been delivered."

The bypass, which during construction was known as the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, connects the Warrego Highway at Helidon to the Gore Highway at Athol.

Mentions of the road in The Chronicle's archive date back to 1968, and discussions for the road became more serious in the late 1990s.

Former Groom MP Ian Macfarlane had campaigned for the road since the '90s.

"There were various points of view (as to why I campaigned for it)," Mr Macfarlane said.

"It was obvious that Toowoomba was going to continue to develop and it had a major highway that joined up with three other highways running through the middle of it. There were issues around safety, around congestion, noise, dust, diesel and smoke ... so I decided then that this would be one of my biggest priorities as the local federal member."

Construction complete on TSRC

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Calls for the crossing intensified after a fatal car crash on the current Toowoomba Range in 2004.

According to Mr Macfarlane the then John Howard-led Federal Government had set aside funds for the project before it was booted out of office by Kevin Rudd in 2007.

"In the end it was me that had to convince John Howard, then Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, to build the road because the (federal) Labor party had dropped the proposal when they were in government," he said. "The project lapsed under the Rudd Gillard Rudd governments and had to be revised when Abbott got in."

A funding agreement for the $1.6 billion project was finally reached between the Campbell Newman-led State Government and the Tony Abbott-led Federal Government in January 2014, with the Federal Government funding 80 per cent of the road and the State Government funding 20 per cent.

Current Groom MP and then Toowoomba South MP John McVeigh was acting Queensland Treasurer at the time of the agreement and signed the dotted line that joined the State Government up to the project.

"The final negotiations during December 2013 and early 2014 were pretty tough and let's just say Tim Nichols as the then State Treasurer and Warren Truss as the then Deputy Prime Minister were bargaining pretty hard," Dr McVeigh said. "We feared we wouldn't get a deal, but at end of the day Ian Macfarlane and myself as acting treasurer worked behind the scenes pretty hard to get the deal done.

"It's important thing to remember (former Premier) Gordon Chalk talked about this project, Reginald Swartz talked about this project in the '60s, Di Thorley did, Peter Taylor did. It was in the end the best part of a 50-year campaign and we got there."

The sod was turned on the development in 2015 and major construction on the project wrapped up last month. Nexus Infrastructure was the consortium of several different companies awarded the contract to build the road.

During that time the construction was plagued with issues, including vehicle roll-overs and geotechnical issues.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey was forced to shut down the project for several days last year after several high-profile roll-overs. He did it to ensure safety on the construction site and geotechnical issues on Embankment 24, a piece of land in the Lockyer Valley, just before the iconic viaduct, led to the project opening being delayed by almost a year.

University of Southern Queensland head of civil engineering and surveying Professor Kevin McDougall said the issue arose because the land was made up of volcanic rock.

"Building a road on old volcanic rocks that have already broken up and are not stable means that you've got to do a lot more work to keep them together," Mr McDougall said.

"And we do we really want a safe and a stable piece of infrastructure, so to do that, it created many challenges of ensuring that those old volcanic rocks did not slide down, did not create barriers, and ensured that the road itself was going to be a stable piece of infrastructure for the future."

Trucks will pay $22.85 to use the new road, light commercial vehicles $5.70, cars $2.30 and motorbikes $1.15. Trucks, with some exceptions, will have to use the new road and not the original Range. The road will be free to use for the first three months.

"This weekend marks the return of James Street to the Toowoomba community, the beginning of a more efficient future for our truckies and is fantastic news for our regional economy," Mr Bailey said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said after creating more than 3,700 local jobs during construction, the crossing would now play a vital role supporting ongoing growth of the region and state's industries.

"It means our world-class exports can get to their destination quicker, and motorists across Toowoomba, the Darling Downs and Lockyer Valley can get home safer," Ms Palaszczuk said.

Mr Macfarlane said he felt incredibly proud seeing the Toowoomba Bypass open this weekend.

"It's no doubt one of my greatest achievements in terms of being the local member," Mr Macfarlane said.

"I've driven on the section that's been open for a while, but nothing will compare to driving up from Helidon to the top of the Range on the new road.

"People have waited a long time for this... and I guess from a Toowoomba perspective, the opening of the road will change not only the travel time for people using the road, but it will change the character of Toowoomba," he said.

Tobi Loftus

Follow @tobiloftus

Originally published as How the Toowoomba Bypass was built after 50 years