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The layout of Brisbane’s major road network. Tollways are shown in green,toll tunnels shown in green dashes and motorways in grey.

RACQ director of public policy Dr Michael Kane said the Centenary Motorway was now a de facto western bypass road and needed a tunnel from Toowong to the city’s northside by the mid-2030s.

Brisbane City Council estimates traffic congestion on Brisbane’s northside alone will cost businesses more than$1.5 million a day by 2031.

Without a solution,Brisbane ran the risk of “traffic dysfunction” that Sydney and Melbourne are now approaching,Kane said.

RACQ head of public policy Dr Michael Kane says the Centenary Motorway has become the city’s “western bypass”.

“That is what Sydney and Melbourne are struggling with,and we are getting their population overflow,” he said.

“Brisbane’s major traffic demand is north-south and the Gateway Motorway is the only road network that runs basically around the entire Brisbane region.

“There needs to be a western bypass and that is now the Centenary Motorway.”

Gateway Motorway traffic grew by 3 per cent to 125,000 vehicles a day,according to operator Transurban.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey on Thursday morning kicked off construction on the $298 million project toturn the four-lane Centenary Bridge into two three-lane bridges by 2027.

They will cater for 152,000 vehicles a day by 2036,well over the 85,000 vehicles now using the link each day.

“This is a massive growth corridor. If you look at the population growth numbers around Springfield,the pressure on our roads down here is very strong,” he said.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday showed Greater Brisbane had the fastest population growth,at 2.3 per cent,of the capital cities in 2021-22.

Kane said the Logan Motorway – running through major population growth areas – also connects to the Centenary Motorway.

“That means traffic leads ultimately from the Centenary Motorway into a tunnel and run all the way through as a tunnel as close to the Bruce[Highway] as possible.”

Brisbane’s original western bypass planwas scrapped in 2008,with a promise to review it in 2026 when traffic numbers increased.

The council’sAugust 2022 North West Transport Network study looking at transport links on Brisbane’s northside also revisited a similar tunnel from Toowong to McDowall with an approximate cost of between $7.8 billion and $11.5 billion by 2041.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads was approached for comment.

Transurban,which owns and operates all toll roads and toll tunnels in Brisbane,would not reveal if it had planned a future northside toll tunnel.

Kane warned that planning was urgent.

“It would be an economic disaster for Australia if we had three major cities that are transport-dysfunctional,” he said.

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