Planning is underway on a major four-lane motorway to be built from scratch through the busy heart of the Sunshine Coast, but don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it.
The new Kawana Motorway is earmarked to run parallel to, and west of, Kawana Way, between Meridan Plains and Parrearra and would be used by 50,000 cars a day.
It will connect with major roads at either end, linking the Sunshine Motorway, through the new Mooloolah River Interchange, onto Kawana Motorway, Kawana Way Link Road and along Bells Creek Arterial Road through Aura to the Bruce Highway.
Together, they will form an important north-south thoroughfare designed to ease traffic in some of the most congested areas of the Sunshine Coast at a time of rapid growth.
A business case is currently being developed for the new motorway with $2.6 million in Federal Government funding.
But don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of the unheralded Kawana Motorway project.
The State Government and State Labor members on the Coast have not been releasing media statements trumpeting the future road improvement.
In fact, the public consultation period which occurred recently in November curiously came and went without fanfare.
The project’s website says planning started in early 2021 and is expected to be completed in 2023.
Stage one will involve building a two-lane road parallel to Kawana Way and within the CAMCOS multi-modal corridor.
Stage two would be upgrading to the full four lanes.
The bigger picture will include fixing the congested roundabout intersection of Kawana Way Link Road, Caloundra Road and Bells Creek Arterial Road.
Options for that key roundabout include traffic lights in the short-term and a new interchange with an overpass/flyover in the future.
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An upgrade will be done on the roundabout intersection of Caloundra Road, Kawana Way Link Road and Bells Creek Arterial Road. The Transport Department says the Coast’s population is forecast to increase 56 per cent — from 357,000 in 2016 to 558,000 in 2041 — and along with it, traffic congestion will rise.
“Preliminary traffic modelling also suggests about 50,000 vehicles per day would use Kawana Motorway in 2041, indicating the need for the motorway,” said a Transport Department spokesperson.
That’s on top of 34,000 cars a day projected on Kawana Way and up to 61,000 a day on Nicklin Way.
(In 2019 there were between 22,000 and 30,000 vehicles using Kawana Way per day and between 44,000 and 57,000 on Nicklin Way.)
The Transport Department says the Kawana Motorway’s purpose will be to reduce congestion and cut travel times on Kawana Way and Nicklin Way.
It will also improve access to the Birtinya Town Centre and Sunshine Coast University Hospital and Health Precinct as urban growth continues around Caloundra.
However, State Member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie has called for more public consultation and information because “people are just wondering what it’s all about”.
Mr Blejie said the motorway and roundabout upgrade were desperately needed projects that had not progressed in years but suddenly planning had started without adequate notice.
He said he had twice contacted the Department of Transport requesting a public meeting and more time to inform the community about what’s going on.
“The public consultation is inadequate. This is a huge infrastructure project and the public should be properly consulted,” he said.
“I’ve requested the Main Roads minister extend the consultation period.”
“I’m hoping they don’t use the business case as a delay tactic. While they are doing the business case, we might as well have as much consultation as we can.”
Mr Bleijie said he was not aware of people being against the project. In fact, he said the community was eager to see these sorts of projects progressed.
“It’s vital we get upgrades happening now because people who travel our Sunshine Coast roads at the moment would be experiencing huge traffic congestion,” he said.
However, he said drivers did not want a set of traffic lights at the Caloundra Road roundabout.
“I’m going to be saying to the government ‘Don’t worry about traffic lights, just plan immediately for an interchange because the traffic lights will just add to congestion on an already congested road,” he said.
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A TMR spokesperson said during the November 2021 consultation period, the department received constructive feedback about design suggestions (such as interchanges), construction timing, noise impacts and barriers, environmental impacts, active and public transport and the number of lanes.
“This community feedback, along with studies undertaken as part of the business case planning, will be considered further as part of the concept design development,” the spokesperson said.
“Further consultation is planned for late 2022 after concept designs have been developed for the community to review.”
