It might, although they’re building an overpass over Boundary Rd, so a tunnel portal would need adequate separation from the end of the overpass.
Completely unrelated to the Beenleigh line shenanigans, what if some level crossings are downgraded or removed entirely, and that through traffic would be rerouted via another road at leads to almost the same place as the original road?
Like here at Brendale/Strathpine, the level crossing just south of Strathpine at SR28 gets downgraded (to allow some traffic), and that Kremzow Road is duplicated from Gympie Road to SP Road to induce more demand for car traffic over the Kremzow Road bridge while cutting traffic through SP Road level crossing?
When plotting tunnels through the Pinelands area it’s important to be aware of ground levels - for example the 20m ASL contour crosses the tracks just south of Boundary Rd. By Banoon we’re over 30m, by Sunnybank over 40m, and by Altandi ~55m. Then Runcorn’s at about 50m and Fruitgrove about 60m.
When I look at this my natural instinct is to look at it from the south to the north. Cross Bulimba Ck then punch into the hillside at Agnes St, single Pinelands station on the NE corner of Mains Rd & Beenleigh Rd. I’m sure the hall can be removed and returned though it’s a pity about the parklet trees.
The trouble, as identified, is Stable Swamp Creek. To get that station location you pretty much have to go under the creek - to try and skirt it to the north means curve radii no better than the ones we’re replacing. The topo’s not a great help either since it’s straight down the hill from Pinelands station. That puts the top of the tunnel at no higher than 35m at the upstream creek crossing (next to Woff St) and plausibly more like 20-25m at the second (Stones Rd). I just don’t think those grades work.
So what can we do? Well, we have to start trenching inbound of Banoon. We start with track level at 30m (~Macgroarty) and need to get down to (at least) 15m so as to go under Stable Swamp at Stones Rd with a tunnel roof. Minus Banoon station (level) we have about 850m, times 2% equals 17m, which is hopefully enough. (I’m using 2% as a relatively conservative grade.)
The tunnel unavoidably goes right under all the Coolinda St houses.
From Woff St to Pinelands is right up the hill - 20m elevation gain in 400m. We can come up… 8 metres in that distance. So it’s quite a deep station. We should have a second entrance on the SE side of the intersection and a walkway under the road too. That allows for far-side-of-intersection bus platforms.
Stay in tunnel under Bulimba Ck. QTopo does say there are oil and gas pipelines along there - not sure what the go is? Stay in trench until the Gateway and all the LXes in that stretch (Nathan Rd, Bonemill Rd, Warrigal Rd) get eliminated.
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My local area! Strong agree with four-laning eastern Kremzow in support of closing the South Pine Rd LX.
My main concern (like with Fairlie) would be on maintaining access across the rail line for bikes and scooters - there’s a lot of scooter usage for last-mile access into the industrial estate. A ramp overpass with access to Strathpine P2 & P3 would solve and improve the situation.
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Both sides of the level crossing have Park-And-Rides at Strathpine station that access all the platforms, so if there is a cycling/pedestrian overpass replacing the level crossing, maybe the overpass should not directly access the station. There already seems to have been an accessibility upgrade; cyclists and scooterists can easily use the lifts at the station. Having to use the lifts will also discourage cycling passengers from riding on the platforms, enhancing safety of users on the platforms.
Does sound like a tunnel would be complicated and very expensive then. I imagine we’ll be stuck with the giant curve and Altandi sitting halfway between two retail centres in perpetuity, because which government would want to spend the money that tunnel would cost? Oh well. We might at least see a level crossing removal.
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If we’re lucky.
If that was the case it would at least be good to see the line elevated over the fields to make a wider curve and allow higher speeds there, and that industrial space next to Runcorn station re-zoned into a TOD or medium-high density housing.
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There is an existing, ongoing development application for the old foundry site next to Runcorn station. It’s a pretty good TOD, albeit with a bit too much parking. Includes a mix of apartments up to 5 stories, townhouses, restaurant/retail precinct next to the station, and parkland. It is currently in a bit of limbo because the land remediation required is considerable, and I believe it also requires remediating the creek that runs through the site as well
Also it’ll be a cold day in hell before the Catholic Church gives up any of their land to the state lol, so I wouldn’t count on your elevated solution
(Lauries is part of the Edmund Rice schools, a Christian Brothers sect of the Catholic church)
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There’s such a thing as compulsory acquisition.
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I agree this should be closed to drivers but it definitely needs a crossing of some kind for active transport users
If level crossings are closed for motor vehicles they can still/should be open for cyclist and pedestrians…even if they flood
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I will note that the current revival of this discussion was on the back of a cyclist being hit and killed by a train at a crossing…
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I have thought long and hard about the Ferny Grove line too. Newmarket was the complicated one but I believe it is doable. You would have overbridges at Alderley, Grovely and Ferny Grove. Arbor St would be removed as I believe there will be a through link provided as part of the redevelopment of the station site.
After leaving Gaythorne (including a possible rebuild with raising of the track height to increase the bridge height at Pickering Street), the line would eventually go onto a bridge with a new elevated station at Mitchelton. This would allow a bus interchange to be built underneath. It would then meet the existing elevation before Oxford Park. This would eliminate 4 level crossings in the process and also present an opportunity for some limited green space/active transport links such as a bikeway.
One of these days I’ll get around to doing proper maps of it.
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Is it possible that the level crossing removals could be done cheaper / quicker? I’ve been observing the one at Carseldine that is taking years and included some alignment changes, rebuilt roads etc. If this is the level they are building them to it is no wonder we haven’t had any recent level crossing removals.
Initially I thought these could be done on the Shorncliffe line but for the expense and time involved, there is just no point.
The issue is that they are being made to keep the level crossing open throughout the construction of the overpass. This may make sense for Beams road, but if you want to do it quicker and cheaper, TMR will have to close some roads temporarily.
It’s the same issue that was causing station accessibility upgrades to take ages. Once they started closing the stations for the upgrade, it significantly reduced the construction time.
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Similarly for when the rail line goes above or below - things go much faster when the entire corridor can be closed!
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There isn’t another level crossing south of Beams Road until Bilsen Rd before Sunshine station, and north until SR28 S Pine Road before Strathpine station. So building longer, costlier elevated rail to remove one level crossing on that stretch of track wouldn’t be more feasible than a shorter, cheaper road overpass.
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So as I alluded to in an earlier comment, I had an idea for removing the level crossing at Newmarket on the Ferny Grove Line. It took quite some time mulling over the problem to come up with this solution. The bus stops would have to be moved over the other side of the railway line from its current position on the southern/western side.
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