The safety of children using the Browns Plains Rd sporting fields has prompted Logan City Council to consider alternate traffic solutions for the area.
Planning and Development Committee Chairperson, Councillor Cherie Dalley (Division 8), said there had been an increase in the volume of traffic using the access road to the Browns Plains Rd SmartTip and the recent opening of the Logan Metro Indoor Sports Centre would lead to further increases. The access road adjoins the popular sporting fields.
Cr Dalley said the high volume of traffic made it imperative for Council to give ''in principle'' support to investigate the possibility of a new access road to the Browns Plains SmartTip site off Bayliss Rd. The investigation would also consider the installation of traffic lights on the corner of Browns Plains and Bayliss roads.
"My major concern in pushing for these traffic changes is that the current access road to the tip site and Logan Metro Indoor Sports Centre is simply not safe enough," she said.
"The existing road runs right past Logan Metro and the landfill sporting sites, so we have heavy vehicles, rubbish trucks and residents hurtling past an area where hundreds of children play sport."
Cr Dalley said she believed if the proposed changes went ahead, they would solve the current problems plaguing travel to and from the SmartTip.
Other proposed changes include: no right-turn on to Browns Plains Rd from the Smart-Tip access road, a left-turn slip lane from Browns Plains Rd on to the access road, an exit on Bayliss Rd for Logan Metro Indoor Sports Centre traffic, and the use of Bayliss Rd for Recycling Market traffic.
''Council has called for a report highlighting the feasibility, planning and design of traffic lights for the intersection of Browns Plains and Bayliss roads and, if they are deemed necessary, identifying how we could bring this project into the 2010/2011 Annual Budget,'' Cr Dalley said.
She said the installation of traffic lights at the proposed site and the new access road off Bayliss Rd would assist traffic flow to the proposed new access road off Bayliss Rd.
"We'll have better queuing capacity for the SmartTip with the access to Bayliss Rd, better access for residents of Heritage Park to SouthWest 1and the Berrinba Wetlands," Cr Dalley said.
"It would also deliver the possibility of extended car parking for major events at Logan Metro and it would enable residents of Heritage Park to exit onto Browns Plains Rd in a much better fashion - at the moment they're getting held up by trucks and heavy vehicles on the roundabout."
Cr Dalley said the proposed changes would not occur until the state government finalised its Gateway Arterial Extensions.
"We're at the mercy of the Department of Main Roads with this but in the meantime I will be writing to every resident on Bayliss Rd to inform them of what Council is proposing," she said.
"This new access road to the SmartTip would be 900m from the nearest house so I want to assure residents that what we're proposing will not adversely impact on them."