Queensland LNP would reverse Bligh Labor Government's plan to widen Kessels Road as a permanent interstate truck route
The Queensland LNP would reverse the Bligh Labor Government’s “appalling” plan to widen Kessels Road as a permanent interstate truck route in a bid to save up to 1,800 small business jobs being “bulldozed”.
Leader Lawrence Springborg says Labor’s plan would demolish and permanently close dozens of businesses along Kessels Road.
“We’ll reverse the plan,” he says. “We’ll take heavy trucks out of the suburbs and clear the way for businesses, shoppers and the local community.
“The Premier talks about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ and then gives the green light to a traffic plan that could cost the jobs of 1,800 Queenslanders who work in the commercial strip between Mains Road and Grout Street.
“Our plan would not only save those jobs, but create hundreds more as we re-position the Brisbane Urban Corridor away from the suburbs. Our plan will reroute heavy trucks onto roads purpose-built for their use.
“An LNP Government would scrap Anna Bligh’s disastrous plan which would drive a permanent truck highway through the Kessels Road-Mains Road intersection and create an even bigger bottleneck at Garden City.”
Springborg says an LNP Government would:
Relocate the National Truck Route from Kessels Road to Logan Motorway
Remove the Logan Motorway Kuraby truck toll and apply a free-flow truck toll to Granard/Kessels roads
Encourage heavy vehicles to use the Logan Motorway alternative route
Scrap the Labor-preferred job-destroying Kessels Road tunnel, designed to support interstate trucks, and divert $300 million in Commonwealth funding to the alternative preferred by the community. This would give priority to residential and commuting traffic by creating a Mains Road underpass of the intersection
Separate traffic streams, improve safety, promote business, protect jobs, and improve the quality of life the full length of the Brisbane Urban Corridor.
“The Bligh Labor Government’s plan for the corridor threatens a major local source of employment at a time when every Queensland job should be protected,” Springborg says.
“This will remove the conflict between heavy interstate trucks and local suburban traffic. It’s time to give local people and employers the certainty they deserve.”
Under the LNP scheme, the cost of foregone toll revenue and minor works to facilitate new traffic flows would be $31.5 million over four years.