Brisbane City Council says the North South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT) will:
- Reduce traffic congestion with more efficient cross town travel
- Increase road capacity for Public Transport
- Create opportunities for Urban Regeneration
The Lord Mayor Cr. Campbell Newman at a recent Brisbane Development Association Luncheon, admitted that even after the NSBT is built there will still be traffic congestion.
The proposed tunnel will not solve traffic congestion - just move it somewhere else -
Stages two and three are being brought forward named as the Airport Link it is really the "OLD" Airport Road. The present proposal is to have a mixture of surface leval roads (dual carrageway or double stacked) and tunnels link to Stafford/Gympie Road from the Bowen Hills end of the NSBT.
$3.30 (plus) toll will only apply to the first section - in all we could be facing that cost x3 or x5
The costs are still very rubbery and have not accommodated air filtration systems.
Consequences of the exhaust plume from the stacks is (and I quote the chap from Monash that was in the 7.30 report) "Tall smoke stacks discharge pollutants that has a cascade of impacts harming local communities and being carried downwind where it has far reaching health and environmental consequences"
The Lord Mayor's Trans Apex vision for Liveable & Accessible Brisbane contains four road tunnels. This does not include the NSBT stages two and three.
For each tunnel there will be 2 stacks if they build 6 road tunnels there are going to be up to 12 stacks on Clean & Green Brisbane's skyline.
This will mean for the Windsor, Wooloowin and Clayfield areas there could be up to 5 polluting 35 metre stacks - so which ever way we turn there will be pollution.
Woolloongabba is also the terminator for another cross river tunnel to the Western Freeway at Toowong. This means a second 35 metre stack which may be even nearer to the Mater Hospital if the tunnel surfaces at Woolloongabba.
The benefits from the minuscule travel time savings over short few years needs to be explained more openly and weighed against the total community impacts and costs (construction and operation).
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