Now we know that tunnels are the wrong way to go

Media release 26 August 2009

Three years ago today, construction commenced on what future historians will judge to be Brisbane’s biggest mistake since Clem Jones removed the trams – the North South Bypass Tunnel.

Campbell Newman’s road tunnels may have seemed feasible in 2004, but climate change, the global financial crisis, oil insecurity and changing travel behaviour now show that the community opposition to wasting more than $15 billion on TransApex was fully justified.

The community is coming to understand that new road infrastructure projects are not the path to future social, economic and financial sustainability. Public infrastructure companies that have built and operated tolled roads and tunnels are writing down their value and struggling financially. Tunnel construction and operation is a risky gamble in this new environment.

More and more commuters are now driving less, combining their trips, using public transport more, and avoiding peak hours by using technology to work from home.

Instead of building more roads, Governments must divert more public funds into public transport, and walking and cycling infrastructure to support rapidly changing travel behaviour.

In the past, tolled private tunnels were foolishly included in transport plans without an open and transparent public process of risk assessment, informed discussion of different transport planning choices and changes to transport behaviour.

Now the Lord Mayor is spending ratepayers’ funds to promote the commercial product of a private tollroad operator in a last-ditch attempt to prop up what was always going to fail. He continues to issue misleading information about the “benefits” of using the tunnel. He says NSBT users will avoid “up to 18 sets of traffic lights”. They can already use the Riverside Expressway and the ICB between Buranda and Bowen Hills without passing a single traffic light and he knows it.

He has continued to saddle our city with debt to fund more investment in private vehicle infrastructure projects when peak oil and climate change raised serious doubts about the viability of these projects.

Our elected representatives have failed to deal with rapidly changing transport needs and constraints. Brisbane is now falling behind by other cities which have sustainable transport systems and infrastructure. Residents were not allowed to make reasoned and informed choices about our city’s future prior to the NSBT’s approval. This must never happen again.

We urge all motorists to indicate that simplistic “fixes” like the NSBT are never going to be viable alternatives for sustainable long-term transport plans by BOYCOTTING THE NORTH SOUTH BYPASS TUNNEL.

Media contact: CAST President David White 0403 871 082