The City of Moreton Bay is lobbying the Queensland Government to bring forward the Bruce Highway Western Alternative by a decade.
Mayor Peter Flannery said the Bruce Highway was an “impending disaster” for the area to the north of Brisbane.
He said the highway was already a “carpark” every day of the week and would only get worse as population numbers grew.
The Council is asking the government to bring forward the delivery of the Bruce Highway Western Alternative to 2032, rather than the current estimate of 2041.
“The real tragedy is we foresaw this,” Cr Flannery said.
“We’re the fastest growing city in South-East Queensland. We are the third largest council area in Australia. We will have a population of one million people in around 30 years.”
“We’ve been talking about this impending Bruce Highway disaster for years, yet still there is no real action and our residents are calling for a fair return on the taxes they pay.”
Cr Flannery said the situation was causing uncertainty for planning and investment in the City of Moreton Bay.
“Without urgent action, congestion on the Bruce Highway and local corridors will worsen and create serious safety concerns,” he said.
“Employment and economic opportunities will be slashed. City of Moreton Bay planning and investment will be at a stalemate.”
Cr Flannery said the Bruce Highway congestion was leading to rat running to “flee the chaos”.
He said the Council was happy to work constructively with the State Government.
According to the State Department of Transport and Main Roads website, the Bruce Highway Western Alternative is a proposed new transport corridor between Elimbah and Bald Hills, known as the Moreton Motorway (see map below).
Planning for the Moreton Motorway corridor is progressing in stages.
“More than 30km of the corridor, between Elimbah and Narangba (stages 1, 2 and 4), are now identified and protected for the future Moreton Motorway,” the website says.
“The remaining section to be progressed is Stage 3, between Narangba and Bald Hills.
“The planning process will also consider other network investigations in the north Brisbane area, including the Gympie Road Planning Program, upgrades to the Gateway Motorway and Bruce Highway and the Brisbane to Sunshine Coast Rail Corridor Strategy.”
Link to the planning site is here.
