Team Global Express truckie Boyde Pirihi couldn’t believe his luck when the bollards came down and he was waved on to the $1.162 billion Gympie Bypass in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Pirihi reckons he was the first truckie to drive along the eagerly anticipated 26km stretch of road, the fourth and final stage of 62 kilometres of upgrades to the Bruce Highway, which began in 2009.
“I was pretty much the first one; they had just got the bollards out of the way and then the traffic controller pointed me down toward the bypass,” said Pirihi who does a return parcel run in a Mercedes-Benz Pantech B-double from Brisbane to Miriam Vale each day with a changeover in between.
“It was a very pleasent surprise to get waved through by traffic control at 1.30am in the morning. It was smooth and like a brand new road.
“It was well lit up at the overpasses and sign-posted very well. I didn’t count them but there are quite a few emergency stopping bays along the way.
“No steep inclines; just a nice, flat smooth run.”
Pirihi reckons he saved a good 13 minutes on the one-way trip compared with the old route through the city and its nine sets of traffic lights and 53 busy intersections.
“From what I’m hearing on social media, some people are up to 16, close to 20 minutes.
“When you’re doing 1000km each night, 13 minutes each way, that’s half an hour pretty much so that’s a huge saving on a big run.”
The only knock Pirihi had on the section was that it was still “a bit rough at Curra” once you come off the bypass.
“But once you’re on the bypass she’s smooth sailing; just lock the cruise control on and send her home.
“Hopefully in the years to come they can sort something out.”
The next section of the Bruce that Pirihi would now like to see fixed is from Gin Gin north.
“Especially after it rains the road is prone to a lot of potholes. Some of them get quite deep and really, really dangerous.”
Southbound truckie David Oxley travelled through later the same morning at 11.45am and gave the bypass a big thumbs up when he rejoined the southern section at Kybong just 16 minutes later.
Oxley said that same distance would have taken him twice as long on the old route through the busy city.
“There was a mixture of trucks and cars, caravans, etc, but all flowing smoothly,” he posted on the Facebook group On the Pads Qld Edition.
“No slow traffic along the Chatsworth stretch anymore. And no stop and go through Gympie itself.
“Overall, a very well-designed bypass. Heaps better than Toowoomba. No steep sections where you might need to drop a few gears – and no potholes yet to be seen!
Oxley also noted that the speed limit is 110km/h for motorists and 100km/h for trucks, and there are plenty of emergency stopping bays.
He was also pleased to see the bypass “very well signed”, with no speed cameras, Safe-T-Cams, or tolling systems of any type.
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