House debates

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Statements by Members

Gateway Motorway

1:46 pm

Photo of Luke HowarthLuke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The Gateway Motorway upgrade to six lanes is almost complete, ahead of schedule and on budget. When I was a Liberal National candidate in 2012, we promised to pour $1 billion into the upgrade of the Gateway Motorway. Any motorist living on the north side of Brisbane would know how painful travelling along the Gateway Motorway is during peak hour. A 40-minute drive from Bracken Ridge, as the member for Brisbane knows, would often become an hour during peak times, and it regularly looked like a car park. Last week, when I was travelling home from parliament, I was really pleased to see that the six lanes were open, which was great. They're still doing a little bit of work here and there, but I've been advised by Transport and Main Roads that, by the end of this week, all three lanes each way will be open from Nudgee to the Deagon Deviation and that, early next year, the speed limit will be put back up to 100 kilometres an hour. What this billion-dollar upgrade from the Liberal-National government has done is that all that traffic that was banking up at Nudgee is now getting off at Boondall, Sandgate, the Deagon exit, the Brighton exit and the Bracken Ridge exit. There is also a dedicated lane to the Redcliffe Peninsula. That leads to traffic heading north to North Lakes and up to the Sunshine Coast. This is really good news, and we'll keep pushing for more infrastructure upgrades in the north side of Brisbane and Moreton Bay.