Toowoomba ring road on schedule to open this year

Tens of thousands of motorists will have shorter travel times through Toowoomba by the end of this year with the city’s $45 million ring road now 30 per cent complete.

Funded by the Queensland Government’s Royalties for the Regions program, the vital road will provide better access between the north and south sides of the city as well as greater flood resilience for the town centre.

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney inspected construction of the road today, together with Member for Toowoomba North Trevor Watts and Mayor Paul Antonio of Toowoomba Regional Council.

“Delivering this key road and missing link in Toowoomba’s Outer Circulating Road system is a key achievement of the Newman Government,” Mr Seeney said.

“We promised to provide better infrastructure and better planning and this road will deliver just that to the Toowoomba community.

“It’s great to see the Victoria Street extension and construction of a new four-lane road connecting Victoria and Russell Streets with Chalk Drive and Ruthven Street is now 30 per cent complete and on track to be open to motorists and pedestrians by the end of this year.

“This $45 million investment comes on the back of $321.25 million we have committed for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and $10 million to duplicate O’Mara Road – illustrating our strong plan to support Toowoomba now and into the future.”

Mr Watts said completing Toowoomba’s Outer Circulating Road system would deliver huge time-savings to residents and reduce traffic congestion in the CBD.

“Toowoomba motorists are eagerly await the opening of this road as it will dramatically save people time when accessing and bypassing the CBD,” he said.

“Importantly, it will mean there are fewer cars travelling through the CBD, which will open up parking spaces for more shoppers and tourists.”

Mayor Antonio said the project was one of the most complex construction projects undertaken in the Toowoomba region.

“There are also major environmental and hydraulic conditions to overcome,” he said.

“Geotechnical studies show that the ground is the consistency of toothpaste in some locations while in other areas the ground is so hard we’ve had to bring in a nine-tonne piling rig to install the sheet piling.”

Mayor Antonio said the Russell Street drainage structure was now taking shape with two of the headstocks completed on the western side of West Creek.

“The support of the local community, particularly businesses in the Russell Street precinct, has been paramount in this project,” he said.

“Council has been working closely with local businesses to minimise the impacts during construction and I thank the community for their patience.

“We’re confident the long-term benefit of the project will far out-weigh any short-term inconvenience and we're so grateful to the State government for their confidence in our region.”

[ENDS] 2 July 2014

Media Contact: Jane Paterson 0417 281 754 or Elizabeth Spry 0418 928 744