Intersection work starts

ON-SITE planning has begun on the long-awaited upgrade to the notorious Kiel Mountain-Woombye-Montville Road crossroads with the Nambour Connection Road.

Surveyors from Maunsell Pty Ltd collected data during December as part of the detailed planning for the proposed new interchange.

"From Maunsell's preliminary investigations it became clear that there was no option for the upgrading of this intersection that did not have an impact on adjoining properties and businesses," Mains Road District Director Gary Fisher said.

"In order to minimise the impact while ensuring an interchange arrangement that would cater for the needs of current traffic flow and for the predicted traffic increase, a number of different alternatives needed to be developed and investigated in detail."

He said this involved consultation with numerous property and business owners and had resulted in the planning process taking longer than originally anticipated.

Main Roads is now calling tenders for the detailed design of the interchange. Once completed, tenders for construction will be called and construction proceed without delay.

Cr Geoff Littler said the overpass design should be completed by July 1998, with construction completed by June 1999. The project was originally to have been completed by the end of 1998.

The preferred option for the proposed interchange will include a road and two metre wide pedestrian cycle path over the highway and roundabouts on Keil Mountain Road and the Woombye-Montville Road.

The decision has been welcomed by the Palmwoods Progress Association which has been actively lobbying for a solution to traffic problems at the intersection for more than three years.

"We were originally pushing or traffic lights just to get something done as the number of traffic accidents and delays continued to grow," President Ron Corelli said. "This option is no doubt the best solution and we can now only hope that work will proceed without delay and before there is a fatality."

A preliminary map of the Palmwoods-Kiel Mountain overpass design