The Centenary Motorway corridor connects Brisbane’s rapidly growing Western Corridor (Ipswich, Springfield and the Ripley Valley) to Brisbane’s inner north and the CBD. Between the Ipswich Motorway interchange in the south and Toowong in the north there are high volumes of traffic along the corridor. These result in road congestion and poor trip reliability and road safety.

Projected population growth in the Western Corridor, combined with a growing number of people commuting from these areas to Brisbane’s employment centres for work, will exacerbate the problem in the future. Ipswich is expected to have the largest population growth of any Local Government Area within South East Queensland from 2016 to 2041 – with additional residents and 61,000 jobs.

Average weekday traffic on the Centenary Bridge was approximately 100,000 vehicles per day in 2016 and is estimated to rise to more than 150,000 vehicles per day in 2036. There were 252 injury crashes recorded on the Centenary Motorway between 2016 and 2020. Increasing congestion will contribute to further safety issues.