In recent Parliamentary Estimates Hearings I took up the funding fight to fix a dangerous bottleneck leading to the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital, asking the Main Roads Minister what his plan was to
address the existing problem which would become worse once the hospital opens in 2016.
I don't think the Minister understands that the road network is more than just the bitumen outside the hospital. The Mooloolah River interchange, at the nexus of the Sunshine Motorway and Nicklin Way, provides critical
northern links to the new hospital and these roads are dangerous and congested.
Since 2001 there have been 148 hospitalisations, nine deaths plus 137 additional cases requiring medical treatment and 244 incidents of property damage in the vicinity of the proposed upgrade of the failing Mooloolah River interchange. This high accident rate includes the two-lane section of Sunshine Motorway near the Glenfields merger (which wasn’t included in the figures I quoted at Estimates).
The previous LNP Government had a plan to build a $440 million upgrade of the Mooloolah River Interchange. I will keep advocating for the new Government to fix this critical road access.