M1 Admission Brings More Traffic Pain for the Coast

Wednesday, 27 Jan 2010

Gold Coasters can expect ongoing logjams, delays and accidents on the packed Pacific Motorway, following the State Labor Government’s admission this month there is no more money to widen the troublesome road.

It’s something which I find hugely disappointing having secured Federal funding for this very project in September 2007.

Back then I was proud and delighted to be able to announce $455 million in Federal funding for the widening of 23km of the Pacific Motorway on the Gold Coast.

That funding by the former Coalition Government was matched equally by the State Labor Government, creating a pool of almost $1 billion to widen the motorway by six to eight lanes of the motorway from Nerang to Tugun.

Two and half years down the track, the State Government has just confirmed the only widening Gold Coasters will get is a 4.5km slice from Nerang to Worongary leaving 18.5km untouched, to remain as two lanes until there is “future funding”.

At the time of the funding announcement, then Queensland Transport Minister Paul Lucas told The Gold Coast Bulletin the “identified priorities for this funding include the widening of the Tugun to Nerang section to up to eight lanes”.

But for our almost $1billion, all we’ve got are improvements to a couple of interchanges,  $420 million spent on upgrades of the Pacific Motorway miles away at Daisy Hill and Slacks Creek and the promise of a widening of 4.5km of the motorway here on the Coast.

This is classic Labor stuff - despite much ado about the widening of the motorway from Nerang to Tugun being a priority, it delivers less than 20 per cent of the project. Or rather, it says it will deliver less than 20 per cent.

We know waste and mismanagement are in Labor’s DNA, but this failure has come as a particularly disappointing blow for the Coast – one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, which deserves a greater slice of the infrastructure dollar.

With all that money allocated for widening supposedly gone, we should all be asking the Bligh Labor Government just when will that “future funding” be forthcoming.

Given the current state of the books in Queensland, I think many of us can look forward to being stuck in traffic on the M1 for many years to come.