THE state government's fresh plans for Mount Cotton Road have come under scrutiny, with concerns raised that new work will cover old ground.
Sheldon man Jason Healey questioned why more time needed to be spent on planning when upgrades to the road had been proposed more than a decade ago.
The state government announced in Decemeber that it would spend $1.5 million on planning for improvements to Mount Cotton Road, including increasing capacity for better traffic flow and improved safety.
It came on the back of repeated calls for urgent action from concerned locals after a number of crashes.
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A 2007 state government road corridor project proposed duplicating Mount Cotton, Broadwater and Duncan roads from Upper Tingalpa Creek to Taylor Road at Sheldon.
Much of the same section of road has been included in the new project, which will also extend as far as the notrious Double Jump Road intersection at Mount Cotton.
Oodgeroo MP Mark Robinson called out the state government for its managment of Mount Cotton Road, saying they had made little progress despite spending big on planning.
"I have heard Labor promise the Mount Cotton Road duplication from Mount Cotton to Mackenzie several times over my 13 years in Parliament, with little progress to date," he said.
"I welcome any clear progress and real commitment to actually constructing new lanes to this dangerous road to save lives ... "
Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the new plan covered a bigger area than previous studies.
"The last study done in the area was 15 years ago, and as we all know, the Redlands and Logan have grown significantly in that time, so it makes sense to do a new study to plan for the future," he said.
"Mark Robinson wanting us to build a road based on a 15-year-old planning shows you just how out of touch he is.
"[He] had the opportunity to act on this study when he was part of the Newman LNP government just a few years after it was published, but he didn't."
Mr Healey, who also spoke to the Redland City Bulletin in 2020, said the government's latest plans were wishy-washy and suggested $1.5 million could be redirected into upgrades.
"They say 'we are going to do this, and we're going to do that' but the plans have already been done," he said.
"They should be starting to do something, not saying it is going to take another two years.
"They need to do heaps more work. At the end of the day, they should just put that money into the plans that have already been done."
The annual average daily traffic on Mount Cotton Road, between Double Jump and Duncan roads, was 14,141 vehicles in 2020.
A Transport and Main Roads spokesman said there had been 73 crashes on the road between January 2016 and December 2020.
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