Business Case for the SunShine CoaSt airport Master Plan

Stage 5: Option Generation
The Brisbane-Sunshine Coast road network
· Options (i) and (ii) above will place additional demands upon the road
network. Brisbane is already suffering from severe road congestion in
extended morning and evening peak periods. With the projected
population growth in the South-East Queensland, this is likely to remain
the case over the medium to longer-term.
· There are currently over 900,000 passenger movements per annum
through the SCA. This figure is projected to rise to 2.0 million by 2030 with
the existing runway or up to 2.8 million with the proposed new east-west
runway. The diversion of most of these passengers to Brisbane for RPT
Services would add significantly to the traffic congestion in Brisbane and
make already difficult access to the Brisbane Airport even more difficult.
· The Bruce Highway provides the road connection to Brisbane from the
Sunshine Coast. The road is a four lane dual carriage-way from the
Sunshine Coast to Caboolture where it becomes a six-lane dual carriageway
before reverting to four lane dual carriage-way at Bald Hills for the
remaining distance to the Brisbane Airport. The road journey from Noosa
Heads to the Brisbane Airport is approximately 138km or 105km from
Maroochydore.
· This road is heavily congested during week-day peak periods and
congestion becomes severe on weekends when it is not uncommon to
experience long delays.
· The diversion of SCA passengers to Brisbane to access RPT services
would have a major impact on the operation of the Bruce Highway as the
majority of people would have no alternative but to drive due to the lack of
convenient public transport connections between the two centres.
· The management of road traffic in and around Brisbane is in a critical state
and every effort should be made to avoid further traffic flows being
generated. The widening of the Bruce Highway between the Sunshine
Coast and Caboolture (45km) to add a lane in either direction could cost in
the order of $900 million or $20 million per kilometre. The additional traffic
generated by the diversion of RPT passengers to Brisbane combined with
the additional traffic arising from the ongoing population growth on the
Sunshine Coast would place further pressure on the road system and
hasten the need to commit to this major work.
· It should be noted that the Bruce Highway is nominated by the
Queensland Governments SEQ Regional Freight Network Strategy as
being the number one priority freight route in the Northern Freight Corridor.
· Whilst we have not undertaken a specific investigation into the impact of
the additional congestion, it is anticipated this would have a material
detrimental impact on national productivity.
Rail connectivity
· Access to Brisbane Airport by rail from the Sunshine Coast is currently
heavily constrained by the design of, and the congestion on, the single
track north coast rail line.
· The line is being duplicated in stages from Beerburrum to Nambour;
however it is not expected to be duplicated to Nambour before 2031.
Nambour is approximately 20 kilometres from the SCA.
· A new train line to service the coastal suburbs of the region from Beerwah
to Maroochydore is proposed although it is not expected to be operational
before 2040.
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