Geography Now - Clem7 Tunnel



(Flowtoll.com.au , pg1)



The Clem Jones tunnel is situated in the Central Business District in Brisbane, Queensland. The Clem7 Tunnel was built from 2008 to 2009 and is 6.8km long (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1)(Business spectator, 2010).It was built to assist Brisbane’s growing population and reduce hazardous congestion within the city. However due to high toll rates and differing opinions between the government and the public the tunnel has not been as successful as was planned and is resulting in large financial losses (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1).

Map of the Clem7 Tunnel
(Brisbanetimes.com.au, “Clem7 confusion”, pg1)

The Clem7 tunnel has lost more than 1.5 billion dollars due to the decreasing numbers in traffic flow (The Courier Mail,2010, pg4). Financially, the Rivercity Motorway has lost more than $1.56 billion, due to the decreasing numbers of motorists passing through the Clem7 tunnel then originally predicted. It has been recorded that during the first month of the Clem7 tunnel opening there was an average of 60,541 vehicles pasting through the tunnel daily, but in August 2010 the number dropped dramatically to an average of 27,908 vehicles a day (Business spectator, 2010).

From the government’s point of view the tunnel was built to ease traffic congestion, to direct traffic away from the inner city and to plan for the future population growth (The Courier Mail,2010, pg1).As the construction finished on the tunnel, the new and quicker way to pass through the city was attracting more motorists to pass through. Due the fact that it cut in 20 minutes from the average motorists travel time and bypasses 24 sets of traffic lights (Clem7, Benefits, 2010).

As for the public’s opinion, the new Clem Jones tunnel was expensive and a let down. After the first month of free tolling, the new price soared up to $2.95 for cars (9news, 2010). The backlash of this was that the number of vehicles declined. Recently the owners, Rivercity Motorway, cut the price down to $2 for cars (Business spectator, 2010).With this new set price, motorists suspect that more people will start to use the tunnel more often and Rivercity Motorway will take advantage of this and rise the price again(9news, 2010).

Traffic still crammed and still no one is using
the Clem7(Couriermail.com.au, pg1)