$400M upgrade for Queensland's Ipswich Motorway -

Unveiled on the 27 of April by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, the $400 million Ipswich Motorway upgrade is officially complete after an estimated 1.5 million hours of work.

The upgrade saw three kilometres of the Ipswich motorway between Granard Road and Oxley Road expand from four to six lanes with seven new bridges being constructed over the Oxley Creek floodplain.

Palaszczuk expressed the significance of improving the highway, saying the project was one of the State’s main concerns.

The project was co-funded by the state and federal government and constructed by local Queensland contractor Bielby Hull Albem Joint Venture.

“Thousands of families and businesses rely on this road every single day, so starting this project was one of the first priorities of my government,” Palaszczuk said.

According to a statement released by the Queensland Government, the upgrade created over 500 jobs which has prompted for greater investment in infrastructure and road projects.

Mark Bailey, Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister said, “More than 85,000 vehicles pass through there every day, and around it is a busy commercial precinct that sits on a well-known floodplain, so building conditions don’t come much more challenging than that.”

The project included:

A four to six lane upgrade between Granard Road and Oxley Road
Seven new and higher bridges over the Oxley Creek floodplain to improve flood immunity and local connectivity
A new 1.5km Boundary Road Connection missing link across the Oxley Creek floodplain through to Blunder Road intersection, including a new signalised intersection at Factory and Boundary Roads, Oxley
A new northern service road connection over Oxley Creek floodplain
New traffic signals at an upgraded intersection of Suscatand Street and the existing service road.
New one-way left-turn only connection from Granard Road to Ipswich Road service road, Rocklea
Over 6.5kms of active transport paths