SIGNIFICANT traffic delays and a permanent queue on weekday afternoon peak times are some of the potential effects of Coles Supermarkets’ proposed U-turn facility according to planning and traffic engineers called to give evidence over the Beerwah development appeal.
A two-year court battle faces further delays following a move by Coles earlier this year to seek a minor change application, which included a U-turn facility.
The U-turn would funnel traffic wanting to head west from the Moroney Place industrial precinct firstly east along Roys Rd, before entering the U-turn and heading west back towards Beerwah.
Coles is appealing a 2021 decision by the Sunshine Coast Council rejecting an application for a shopping centre, fuel station and fast food outlet on the corner of Roys Road and Steve Irwin Way.
As part of the appeal it has sought that the Land and Environment Court accept the U-turn facility as a minor amendment to its development application.
But experts engaged by co-respondent, Village Fair Investments, argue the U-turn will result in a number of adverse impacts on the public.
In an affidavit, Director of Buckley Planning, Christopher Buckley, stated that while the current intersection was not perfect, the Coles proposal was inappropriate.
“Replacing a functional but less than ideal intersection (being the existing Moroney Place intersection) with another inferior outcome is inappropriate, particularly where that outcome places an impost in the form of time and distance penalties on the public in circumstances where the catalyst is for private gain,” he stated. Pushing traffic east onto the U-turn facility would also deliver significant time penalties and result in impatient road users.
“In respect of distance, it is approximately an additional 500 metres . In respect of time and allowing for the delays at the intersection as identified by Mr Holland , the additional time penalty is between 2.5 and three minutes,” Mr Buckley stated. He also raised concerns that Coles could use the U-turn as an access point to the shopping centre, which was not part of the original application.
“Given there is no prohibition on the access being used as an access from the commencement of the use of the Land for the purposes the subject of the various development applications, it is my view that new access operating as access (and not a u-turn facility) will compound the issues that have been identified,” he stated.
“Those outcomes, coupled with the safety concerns identified by traffic engineer Stuart Holland … lead to me conclude that the Proposed Change is likely to give rise to substantial adverse and unacceptable traffic impacts.”
Mr Holland, also engaged by Village Fair, stated in his affidavit that the request to install a U-turn facility warranted the right of the community to comment.
“Typically, the impacts which arise at a high degree of saturation are: (a) significant delays to vehicles wanting to make the desired movement; (b) a permanent queue (here, for the weekday PM peak); and a higher risk profile for the intersection due to drivers becoming impatient and accepting smaller gaps in traffic and thus further elevating the risk profile,” he stated.
“Given the distance between the stop bar in the westbound land at the new signalised intersection on Roys Road and the new access is approximately 110 metres, the result will be queuing across the new access during the weekday PM peak,” he stated.
“While the frequency of occurrences for the queue distance extending beyond 110 metres is not entirely clear, these are new impacts not previously proposed by the Appellant and may be matters which would have caused members of the public to make submissions.”
The next court hearing date is scheduled for late July and early August.
Main image: Development of the industrial park next to the proposed Coles site is under way.