Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway Upgrade

Just last month the department of Transport and Main Roads has awarded the detailed design and construction contract of the new Bruce Highway upgrade for Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway. The project is classified as one of Queensland’s highest priority upgrades and will hugely increase accessibility through Caloundra out to the Bruce Highway.

This $929.30 million dollar project is designed to with motorists in mind increasing the accessibility and improving the efficiency of this section in preparation for the continued growth of Caloundra and surrounding areas.  The plan is to upgrade the section of the Bruce Highway between Caloundra Road an the Sunshine Motorway to 6 lanes, including major upgrades to both interchanges and also a service road for local traffic between Steve Irwin Way and Tanawah Tourist Drive.

The project includes transforming the Caloundra Road interchange into a new innovative design which will ensure reduced congestion, a safer and more secure interchange and enhancing the capacity of the interchange. Another step is to update the southbound exit to Pignata Road providing a safe and direct access to the local businesses, residents and also a connection to the future development Palmview.

The western service road will be directly accessible from Sippy Downs and will have a secondary roundabout in place to allow local access off the Bruce Highway for North bound traffic.

A large focus of the project is sustainability with many of the changes directly reducing the footprint on Beerwah State forest and surrounding areas. In the project active transportation infrastructures are also to be made readily available to the public encouraging car pooling, the use of bus services and even cycling. Having these facilities encouraging locals and visitors to car pool or preferably cycle or walk build around councils plans to make Caloundra an environmentally sustainable city.

The preliminary construction will start late 2016 with plans to see the project finalised in late 2020.