Legacy Way opened to traffic on Thursday 25 June 2015 and is Council’s 4.6 kilometre road tunnel that connects the Western Freeway at Toowong with the Inner City Bypass (ICB) at Kelvin Grove. The tunnel provides motorists with a four minute journey between the Western Freeway and the ICB, and reduces traffic congestion on alternative routes such as Milton Road and Coronation Drive.

Legacy Way includes:

• two separate parallel road tunnels, each with two lanes of traffic
• a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour
• a ventilation system to manage air quality
• safety systems, including emergency exits, fire protection and monitoring systems
• a fully electronic tolling system

Legacy Way is a key part of Council’s plan to tackle traffic congestion on the city’s roads and is the last link in Council’s TransApex ring-road of major infrastructure projects that now provides a system of bypasses and vital river crossings around the city centre. With the opening of Legacy Way, the TransApex projects will remove more than 120,000 vehicle movements from Brisbane’s surface roads each day.

Tolling

Legacy Way operates as a user-pays system, which requires road users to pay a toll each time they use the tunnel. Council agreed with Transurban (formerly Queensland Motorways) to the transfer of tolling concession rights and operational control of the Go Between Bridge and Legacy Way. As the tunnel operator, Transurban is responsible for setting toll prices for Legacy Way.

Funding

Legacy Way was delivered under a Design Construct Maintain Operate (DCMO) model, whereby Brisbane City Council owns the tunnel. Council borrowed the necessary funds from the Queensland Government to build Legacy Way. The Federal Government committed $500 million to Legacy Way which has helped Council to fund the project.

Construction

Construction on Legacy Way started in April 2011 and the tunnel opened to traffic on Thursday 25 June 2015. The project was designed and constructed by Transcity, which is an integrated team comprising BMD Constructions, Italian company Ghella and Spanish company Acciona.