Division 6 Councillor Christian Dickson said lighter than usual traffic over the Christmas and New Year period would allow a significant amount of Sunshine Coast Council’s intersection upgrade to be undertaken.
“This is an extremely busy area for traffic during most of the year due to the close proximity of two local schools and the university,” he said.
“With school and university holidays just around the corner construction crews will endeavour to get as much work as possible completed at the Stringybark Road intersection during December and January.
The project involves connecting the recently completed section of Sippy Downs Drive near Chancellor State College, to the shared boundary of the Sunshine Coast University and Siena Catholic College. Works include removal of the existing roundabout at Stringybark Road and construction of a new fully signalised intersection with dedicated turning lanes.
When completed, Sippy Downs Drive will have two traffic lanes in each direction, an on-road bicycle lane, parallel parking bays and a four metre wide pathway. A landscaped central median will also be constructed.
The carriageway on the northern side will be partially completed by council, with only one lane and a shoulder for cyclists being constructed for east bound traffic. The balance of work will be constructed by the developers of the Sippy Downs Town Centre when they commence work in the future.
Cr Dickson said the majority of service relocations had already been carried out and approximately 60% of the new stormwater drainage had been installed.
“Conduits are being laid for the undergrounding of the electricity supply and the preliminary earthworks for the pathway on the southern side of Sippy Downs Drive are being prepared,” he said.
“It is planned to get the majority of this four-metre wide pathway installed early in the new year to improve access for cyclists and pedestrians.
“It is also proposed to remove the existing roundabout at the Stringybark Road intersection and replace it with road pavement whereby it will still function as a temporary roundabout with the use of barriers until the new traffic signals are operational.
“These barriers will be able to be moved around the intersection area to enable other works to proceed without interrupting traffic flows too much.”
Road construction works for the frontage of University of the Sunshine Coast will progress over the next six months with traffic control in place where required. Council will endeavour to keep traffic disruption to a minimum however delays could be expected during the course of the works.