Toowoomba Bypass?

Submitted: Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:23

ThreadID: 77706 Views:5671 Replies:4 FollowUps:8

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brushmarx

When travelling through Toowoomba, the eastern approach on the Warrego Highway is steep, slow, and if an accident happens, stopped for hours.
Approaching from the east is a sign that indicates that a bypass through Murphys Creek is an option.
Does anyone have knowledge on whether this is a viable option, and does it minimise the 10% slope that exists?
Simple research shows that pilot tunnels for a proper bypass was conducted around 2006 or so, and funding of $33 million is in place, but the Main Roads website seems to show that no progress has been made. Personally, I would think that 700metres of volcanic tunnelling and kilometres of associated road upgrading would be far more expensive than $33M, and that would explain a lack of progress, but what is the existing route like?
Cheers
Ian

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Reply By: Member - Jon W (Toowoomba QLD) - Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 11:32

Reply By: Camoco - Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 13:19

Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 13:19

Things are even more grim when you consider the money that has been "spent" aquiring properties along the length of the route.

The properties aquired are in limbo for the duration. They do not get paid until the project has been completed (or near enough) and then at the prices based on the start of the project (that is around 2006 prices). During this time the areas affected have grown considerably and are worth quite a bit more, but they will not get the value of that increase.

By the time the bypass is completed, the volume of traffic will have increased to such an extent that there will be no real visible reduction to the current flow on the range as it is now. The real benefit will be during traffic disruptions.

Even the amount of heavy vehicles will seem to have not reduced much by todays numbers given that the bypass is supposed to be a toll road, and any transports coming to Toowoomba from the east will probably revert to the range rather than paying and backtracking from the west.

The $33m is just for the "feasibility" study for drilling the pilots and "aquiring" the lands surveyed.

As for the MC option, as stated earlier, it is a nice drive, but not a real option unless you have no other choice. I could also say the same for the southern option through Flagstone Creek. A nice drive but even steeper and windier.

Cheers

AnswerID: 412888

Follow Up By: Member - Old Girl (QLD) - Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 22:10

Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 22:10

Anna will have daylight saving in before that tunnel even starts. When I lived in Toowoomba I didn't like the range but the MC road is so much longer. If you have a uhf you will hear about any hold ups way back at Gatton.

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Follow Up By: Camoco - Thursday, Apr 15, 2010 at 07:05

Thursday, Apr 15, 2010 at 07:05

I agree with your thoughts on DLS before the bypass. Not that I want to revisit the argument, but why would we want DLS this far north?
I am sure it will come in whether because we don't need it and the bypass won't because we do!

If it has been a while since you have lived here, you will certainly notice the difference in traffic volume and size. In the last year alone, I have been surprised by the increase, especially Sundays. Not sure where the road train routes are, but they never used to include the range, however Sunday is the day for sneaking them down it seems. Once upon a time you never even saw any combos there now the length becomes the biggest issue when they start passing each other at the saddle doing 10-15 km/h and you are trying to keep the old girl down to 80.

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Follow Up By: Member - Old Girl (QLD) - Thursday, Apr 15, 2010 at 18:56

Thursday, Apr 15, 2010 at 18:56

I was there last week but we enter from the western end. The traffic is unreal on James Street. As the area around Chinchilla becomes more resourced it will only get worse. The James street stretch out the front of RACQ is such a bottleneck. My husband is one of those truck drivers you mentioned. He is heading back out west in two weeks to get away from the daily traffic hassles.

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