Work on the Coomera Connector is set to be delayed even further with the state government blaming a hold-up from federal authorities.
Already a year behind schedule, construction on stage one of the second M1 should have started in mid-2022.
But it now won’t start until late this year at the earliest.
The fresh delay has been slammed by the state opposition which has labelled the state government as ‘hopeless’ when it comes to delivering transport projects.
“We are sick and tired of the people of Queensland being shortchanged by the incompetent Transport and Main Roads Minister,” Shadow Transport Minister Steve Minnikin said.
“Under this Minister’s watch, the second M1, the Coomera Connector, it’s blown out by $600 million in terms of construction costs, and it’s blown out now by a year and a half. And who knows when it will start.
The opposition has also criticised the scaled-down project with the second M1 to only start with four lanes instead of the promised six.
The state government says it is still waiting for federal environmental approvals before work can get underway.
But Mr Minnikin has described that as “smoke and mirrors” and just another excuse.
“We can actually see here that the environmental approvals were actually asked for (by) the federal government around about a year ago. Now we see yet again, there’s been a further delay in the state government responding to the federal government.”
