Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

Neither of TMR’s Overpass Options 1 or 2 is ideal for the community (TMR = Qld Transport & Main Roads). A large overpass will be unsightly, ugly and will divide the suburb.

Long term local resident, Kerry Morgenstern, said, “an overpass has been in the pipeline since I was a child, I remember my grandmother talking about it.” Indeed, an ‘overpass’ has been a mantra all this time. It seems to have developed an unstoppable juggernaut momentum. I attended community meetings calling for the overpass and spoke a warning that unless we attend to population growth, we’ll all be back in 15 years calling for it to be widened.

Frustration at further delays are understandable given the inordinately long time it’s taken for governments to address this problematic crossing compared to others across the city. The long years of many people repeatedly calling for a solution (code-worded ‘overpass’) was the time for careful consideration. But the consultation and planning have been rushed because TMR is under such time and funding constraints due to the unplanned nature of Australia’s population growth, especially post Covid19. The government and industry’s thinking was, ‘we have to catch up’, so immigration rose to unprecedented levels in 2022, causing extreme pressure on transport infrastructure construction – at a time of materials shortages. This is like saying because we were stuck in traffic, we can break the speed limit.

Local engineer, Max Hooper drew up an alternative option for a short underpass (below) which has the following advantages:

• Better visual amenity
• Better connectivity for residents and local businesses
• Allows through traffic to bypass the level crossing whilst also limiting the amount of additional traffic onto Orange Grove Road, as all local traffic still uses the level crossing
• Less noise from truck exhaust brakes climbing and descending the steep road either side of the overpass
• The grades for an underpass work much better than the grades for an overpass, less chance of accident at signalised intersection with Heavy Trucks passing the crest and losing Safe Intersection Sight Distance (SISD)
• Less impact on local businesses on Boundary Road (including retention of better road access when compared to the overpass option and less disastrous property resumption impacts)

Max Hooper put in long hours doing the research, both technical and financial, to study the feasibility of an undercutting. When a local resident living near the site who has the civil engineering skills and the enthusiasm to come up with a better solution, he should be heard.

Not a resident and still skeptical?

If your main interest in the level crossing is as a road user, you’ll be interested in the wider connectivity issues of the crossing.

Boundary Road is a Council road and one of three arteries for heavy freight and containerized trucks crossing southern Brisbane to get from the Acacia Ridge Inland Rail terminal (see ARTC – Australian Rail Track Corporation) to the Port of Brisbane via the Gateway Motorway. The other two are the state gazetted truck route, Kessels Road, and a shorter route on Compton Road, another Council road. Both need upgrades to prevent existing congestion points. Boundary feeds into the main intersection at Sunnybank and is suitable for servicing local delivery. An undercutting would match those needs.

In my view – and Max doesn’t share this – the congested right turn from Orange Grove Road to head west on Boundary, can be alleviated by connecting Musgrave Road to Beaudesert Road – a route that languishes as a backwater due to lack of foresight. Although there are two rail lines and some flooding issues to deal with, the area is light industrial and construction of an elevated roadway would be much less disruptive than at the Boundary Road crossing. It is a connection that is inevitable and bringing it into the present would disperse traffic flow.

Update October, 2023: The overpass TMR is building will have an elevated intersection for Boundary and OG Roads.