We’ve just received some excellent news regarding the cycling facilities that will be included in the Ipswich Motorway Upgrade: Rocklea to Darra – Stage 1. This covers the 3km section from Oxley Road to Granard Road, Rocklea and is due for completion in late 2020.

We thank Minister Mark Bailey MP and the team at Transport and Main Roads for insisting that cycling facilities be included in this project (recall that this was first publicly committed by Minister Bailey at our Movie Night in 2017!) and the contractors Bielby Hull Albem Joint Venture (BHA JV) for what appears to be an excellent design.

The detailed drawings confusingly show south at the top of page, so we’ve flipped and reproduced them here from west to east, starting at Oxley Road:

The final design includes cycle access (via shared paths) on both the north and south sides of Ipswich Motorway on the new bridges over Oxley Creek, and a connecting underpass.

It also includes a 2-way cycleway along the northern side of the motorway between Oxley Creek and Granard Road, which will save cyclists from having to use the service road through this section, which is very busy with heavy vehicle traffic.

Finally, it will provide a connection from this new cycleway, under the motorway to Granard Road, which has been a sorely missing connection.

For some history on this project see our post from 2017 Ipswich Motorway connection: win!