The Gap Community Association

The outcomes of the Western Brisbane Transport Network Investigation (WBTNI) study by the State Government have the ability to significantly change the shape of Brisbane’s western suburbs and our suburb of The Gap in particular.

We are being asked by the State Fovernment to comment on the Draft Terms of Reference by no later than the 31st July 2007.

The Gap Community Association (GCA) will be lodging a submission to the State Government on the Draft Terms of Reference, however, we need input from local residents to assist in this task.

Some of the issues that the GCA proposes including in our submission are as follows:

1. Environmental considerations should be taken into account for all aspects of the Study and not just for a possible further study to determine the location and timing of a future Western Bypass (Item 10 of the Draft). In particular, the environmental issues that are peculiar to The Gap (refer Annexure 1) need to be taken into account.
2. The Brisbane City Council’s (BCC) decision to upgrade Gap Creek and Dillon Roads should be investigated as well as the strategic merits of the TransApex Northern Link proposal (Item 5 of the Draft). Pending these investigations, the BCC should defer any work on the upgrade of Gap Creek/Dillon Roads as such work could end being in conflict with the recommendations of the WBTNI.
3. An upgrade and widening of Metro Route 5 northwards from the Toowong Cemetery should be included as a third ‘bypass’ option in item 9 of the Draft.
4. The study should specifically address the need for bus ‘pull-in’ lanes on Waterworks Road inbound and outbound.
5. During peakhours, traffic in the T2 lane is only as fast as the slowest bus and is currently almost gridlocked – serious safety issues also arise from the limited number of pull-in lanes (refer Annexure 2)
6. Wherever roads need to be built, widened or upgraded arising from the WBTNI, power poles should be replaced by underground cabling for safety and aesthetic reasons.

I am sure that there are other issues that The Gap residents would like to raise and if so, we urge you to either email or post them to the GCA (PO Box 447, The Gap) or to submit them directly to the WBTNI Study Group. Don’t forget they need to be received by WBTNI by the 31st July 2007.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 4:51 am and is filed under Western Bypass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.