‘We’ve been dudded,’ says Powell as residents await upgrade and Main Roads Minister responds

Steve from Maleny Coachlines with Member for Glasshouse Andrew Powell. 

Conondale, Cambroon and Kenilworth locals will recall the Labor Government announced early last year that Maleny-Kenilworth Road between Lees Road and Booloumba Creek would finally be upgraded.

What they may not realise was that those upgrades were not scheduled to begin until July 2022 at the earliest. Member for Glass House Andrew Powell said he was incensed by what he said was the government’s sleight of hand.

“The budget the Government handed down last year showed that locals will be waiting years before they see a single shovel in the ground,” said Mr Powell.

Steve, a bus driver with Maleny Coachlines, shared Mr Powell’s concerns. He navigates Maleny-Kenilworth road daily and describes it as life-threatening.

“The holes on the side of the road are so massive that you need to pull off (the side of the road) with 57 kids on board and it’s just a massive safety issue,” said Steve.

The Maleny-Kenilworth Road upgrades will cost $4.9 million, of which $447,000 has been allocated for design work that has only just begun and is not due to be completed until the end of 2021.

“What this means is that commuters will continue to travel along this dangerous, disgusting road with no changes made to it for at least another year but more likely two or three.”

The actual construction is not budgeted to start until sometime in the 2022/23 financial year. It will begin in July 2022 at the absolute earliest. “What I’d like to know is why it’s going to take the best part of 12 months to design the upgrade and possibly more than 12 months more until we see anything tangible happen.  That’s just inefficient at best and incompetent at worst.

“The people of Conondale, Cambroon and Kenilworth have every right to feel duped. The media announcement by the Government last year led everyone, myself included, to believe we’d see shovels in the ground within twelve months. It’s simply unacceptable.

“The only good news in all of this is that when the upgrade actually happens it will include widening and sealing the single lane sections of Maleny-Kenilworth Road south of Lees Road in Conondale to Goades Road, Cambroon as well as either side of the Booloumba Creek Road intersection at Cambroon.”

“I invite Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Minister Mark Bailey to come and drive Maleny-Kenilworth Road and tell locals that they would be happy to let their loved ones drive that road on a daily basis.  If they can’t do that, they need to explain why locals will be waiting more than two years to see the roadworks they promised last year!” said Mr Powell.

There was a fair chance funding for the Maleny-Kenilworth Road upgrade would have been cut by the LNP had they been elected, according to Minister for Main Roads Mark Bailey.

“Two days out from the last election, voters learned the LNP were secretly planning to cut already-funded Sunshine Coast road projects to pay for their puny version of the Coomera Connector on the Gold Coast,” he said. “No wonder the LNP lost two seats and recorded significant swings against them on the Sunshine Coast at the last election.

“It was his LNP government that sacked 14,000 public servants, including more than 700 road builders. So no one should be surprised to hear Andrew Powell still thinks the work they do is ‘inefficient’ and ‘incompetent’.

“Mr Powell was in government once, so he should understand how budgets and road projects work. The majority of road upgrades must be designed before shovels hit the ground and that’s the stage we’re at with the $4.9 million upgrade we’ve funded between between Lees Road and Booloumba Creek.”

Mr Bailey said his department scheduled shoulder grading works and edge repairs on Maleny-Kenilworth Road in February to ensure it remained safe while design work was completed. “Mr Powell’s electorate is seeing a massive investment in job-supporting projects under Labor. Later this year, an $18 million safety upgrade project will start on Steve Irwin Way.

“As part of the $550 million jointly-funded Beerburrum to Nambour project we’ll build three new bridges, expand three park ‘n’ ride facilities and duplicate the section of rail track between Beerburrum and Beerwah – a project the LNP and Andrew Powell ignored while they were in government.”

Mr Bailey said that project was part of a record $3.6 billion investment in transport and road upgrades being rolled out across the Sunshine Coast, including  the $662 million six-laning of the Bruce Highway between Bribie Island Road and the southern Steve Irwin Way exit.