Specifically dump the Gympie road tunnel and instead joint the NWTC corridor with the dumped Centenary Highway Bypass Tunnel and include a Stafford road bypass tunnel to also connect this new tunnel to the Airport link. It would be done in 3 stages. First stage will ease congestion off the Centenary Highway. Stage 2 would effectively ease congestion off Gympie & Stafford Roads, and Stage 3 would link the previous two stages together thus completing the bypass.
Additionally I would also build the East West Link. This one is an expansion on a previously planned Road tunnel. Stage 1 would be built first allowing traffic from the Pacific Motorway to connect to the Western Bypass Tunnel. This will be followed by stage 2 which would ease congestion off Old Cleveland Road. Eventually in turn this could connect to a new Redlands Motorway corridor that could serve the Redlands region before then heading south to meet the Coomera Connector North future stages.
In my opinion we’ve had so much investment in roads and freeways that it’s time for public transport to get some massive levels of investment. This project would be astronomical in cost too.
I also think that where possible PT options, especially for longer distances like that should be rail based. Brisbane and SEQ are past the point where bus based solutions are adequate.
I live in Warwick. My family lives on Bribie Island. My wife’s family lives in Redcliffe. We visit frequently as we have a newborn, but admittedly less so when diesel is $3 a litre.
I am not convinced public money should be spent on this.
The western suburbs deserve a PT upgrade, both north and south. A new straighter rail alignment getting out of Brisbane for the North Coast Line would be nice. It is not clear to me how a road tunnel through the back of Brisbane creates opportunities to add-on the most beneficial or cost effective public transport infrastructure the city or these areas need. The East-West link may have some prospects for a concomitant PT project though.
What specific public transport links would you propose that this north-south tunnel creates the opportunity to build?
Personally, a western highway bypass around Brisbane would be preferred over the Gympie Road Tunnel, however as a matter of priority, it is quite low.
I’d prefer to see the existing bypass roads untolled and a congestion toll introduced in the city before alternative bypass highways are investigated. Since from the North, you are already able to get to Ipswich via the Gateway, Airport Link, and Legacy Way Tunnels, or the Gateway and the Logan/Ipswich Motorways already. Encouraging their use over inner-city roads like Milton Road would be a huge step towards reducing vehicle traffic in the city.
The other priority would be adding a new multimodal freight facility in the north to reduce the number of heavy vehicles travelling from Acacia Ridge to the north through the city.
Additionally, adding a western freight rail corridor would also be more beneficial to take freight off of the congested North Coast line. There’s plenty of space to add a dedicated freight track between Darra and Ipswich since it follows the highway for a lot of the route, and then you could revitalise the rail line north through Esk and around Somerset towards Gympie.
Orbital arterial and we got the sections on east with gateway motorway and south with logan motorway so we still missing the 1/3 to complete the orbitial triangle
Just realised theres Centenary & Western….so just 16 or so km of missing links to complete the orbitial.triangle
It is a vital missing link but tunneling is the only option. I don’t see a tunnel being affordable. Ideally, you would need a tunnel with 3 or 4 lanes each way to handle high volumes of cars and trucks 100kph and a bus lane. Gateway Motorway diverts around 150K cars a day away from the city. The Western Bypass needs to do similar.
I don’t have a problem with any road tunnel proposal, on the condition it’s built with the capacity for future RAIL operations through it corridor/station cavities etc
The idea of spending an extra $30 billion on freeways when we can’t even get a rail extension built is criminally stupid. I’m sorry to be blunt, but this kind of idea has absolutely no place in the 21st century.
BTQ should be very firm in calling for absolutely no new freeways or freeway expansions. If building road tunnels was going to fix private vehicle congestion instead of making it much worse (as has happened) we would have seen some evidence by now.
As a society, we have limited time and resources to fix our deeply irrational, destructive, expensive and deadly transport system, and this kind of thinking would take us backwards.
There is a very good reason why infrastructure Australia doesn’t recommend a single new urban freeway or road project as a priority.
