Article: $6.8m Brisbane traffic plan up the Creek

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$6.8m Brisbane traffic plan up the Creek

$6.8m Brisbane traffic plan up the Creek
Tony Moore | February 19, 2009

Creek Street in the city will remain a one-way street for now after Brisbane City Council shelved a $6.8 million plan for major traffic changes in the area.

The council will instead formulate a CBD congestion "road map", taking into account the impact that extra pedestrians, bicycles and a doubling of Brisbane's bus fleet will have on the CBD over the next 20 years.

Infrastructure committee chairman Graham Quirk confirmed the multi-million Town Reach project, which included changes to Creek and Eagle streets, was on hold "indefinitely".

The council will instead pursue an "integrated planning work taking into account the expected growth in pedestrian movements, the expected growth in cycle movements".

"The relationship of those things with what we know will be a doubling in bus movements," he said.

"What we are talking about is a planning study to give us a road map. We know where we are now, we know where we want to be in 2026, the work that has got to be done is how we can have a smooth as possible transition to 2026."

The Town Reach project had planned to change Creek Street to a two-way street, Eagle Street would become a cul-de-sac and a landscaped garden would be built around the historic fig trees near the Brisbane Stock Exchange.

Labor's council Opposition Leader, Shayne Sutton, has always doubted the scheme was viable and renewed her call for a pedestrian master plan for Brisbane.

Cr Quirk said traffic tests confirmed the Creek Street changes would not work.

"What we have said is that we don't want to proceed with it and then find that Creek Street becomes a cot case," Cr Quirk said.

"And the traffic work we have done today suggests that will be the case. So that is the reason why it is on hold indefinitely."

Cr Quirk said the Town Reach project was too small, when a larger plan was needed.

Next month, Brisbane City Council will announce the outcome of a review of CBD speed limits, which is considering reducing the limit to 40kmh.

Cr Sutton said the council's decision to put the Town Reach project on hold raised the question of long-term pedestrian safety in inner-city Brisbane.

She said the Town Reach project was an important "test case" in managing the city's traffic.

"It's a blueprint for how we see the city transforming into the future," she said.

"Now, at the first hurdle the Lord Mayor has walked away from the CBD Master Plan, he's walked away from the Town Reach project," she said.

Brisbane's CBD Master Plan was a 2004 election promise by Lord Mayor Campbell Newman.

Cr Sutton called on Brisbane City Council to immediately begin its pedestrian study.

"The biggest losers in this mismanagement is the pedestrians at dangerous intersections in the CBD, like the intersection at Creek, Eagle and Queen streets," she said.

"There is no consideration of pedestrian dangers and that is why we need a pedestrian master plan for the CBD."