Western Freeway

From Bikeqld

The Western Freeway runs from the end of Milton Road in Toowong out to Forest Lake, becoming the Centenary Highway at Moggill Road. At the Toowong end it connects to Coronation Drive via Sylvan Road, and also meets the end of Mt Coot-tha's Sir Samuel Griffith Drive. It has a parallel bikeway that runs from Toowong out to Sumners Road in Jamboree Heights, almost entirely exclusive bike path the whole way.

Access points

The crossing of Moggill Road.

• Dean St / Anzac Park, Toowong
• Taringa Pde (at Equinox St), Indooroopilly
• Julie St, Indooroopilly
• Moore Park, Indooroopilly
• Moggill Road, Indoooroopilly
• Witton Road, Indooroopilly
• Boundary Road, Indooroopilly
• Rainforest Park (off-road), Fig Tree Pocket
• Fig Tree Pocket Road, Fig Tree Pocket
• Norman St, Fig Tree Pocket
• Spinkbrae Street, Fig Tree Pocket

The crossing of Sinnamon Road.

• Sinnamon Road, Jindalee
• Capitol Dr, Jindalee
• Dandenong Rd, Mt Ommaney
• Mt Ommaney Centre (Dandenong Rd end of top commuter car park), Mt Ommaney
• Mt Ommaney Centre (behind hardware store), Mt Ommaney
• Mt Ommaney Centre (via road that connects to Andaman St), Mt Ommaney
• Jagarra Pl (via underpass to rear of hardware store), Sinnamon Park
• Glenn Ross Rd (via underpass to rear of hardware store), Sinnamon Park
• Andaman St (between Ebrill St and Laptev Cl), Jamboree Heights
• Sumners Road, Jamboree Heights (end of bikeway)

The Toowong end

For a more technical discussion of this route, see North Toowong corridor

Travelling inbound the bike path ends in Anzac Park in Toowong, with an intersection with Dean Street opposite the council bus depot. Cyclists cross the road there and are required to proceed through the car park on the left to reach Miskin Street.

Crossing Miskin Street, just next to a major roundabout, is no great joy. Cars often queue across the crossing to enter the roundabout (despite the "keep clear" directive on the road), and cars leaving the roundabout often do so at speed. Cyclists heading outbound will need to look almost directly behind them for traffic leaving the roundabout, so stopping completely is advisable. There is a small traffic island in the middle of the road, but it's not as wide as a bike is long, so rely on it with care.

The Milton Road end of Sylvan Road.

A short section of shared path joins Miskin Street to Sylvan Road. Heading inbound, cyclists can choose to cross the road at the intersection of Sylvan Road and Milton Road, but will need to look for traffic leaving Sylvan Road (approaching from the right), traffic entering it from Milton Road outbound (approaching from ahead) and traffic entering from Milton Road inbound (approaching from behind). A safer option is to proceed further around to the right, and enter Sylvan Road further from the intersection. The line markings on the path are misleading, but don't take the first ramp; that's for outbound cyclists only, and inbound cyclists using it cause a hazard to themselves and others. Instead, keep following the path until it terminates at Norwood Street, and enter Sylvan Road by turning right out of this road. That section of path is signed as a separated path, but the yellow markings on the ground make it far from clear where pedestrians and cyclists in either direction should be. Whichever direction you use this section of path in, watch out for other path users.

Sylvan Road, inbound.

The rest of Sylvan Road is quite pleasant, with bike lanes the length of it all the way down to Coronation Drive and the Bicentennial Bikeway.

Using the road

Cycling on the Western Freeway and Centenary Highway is permitted. Most of the road has sufficient shoulders for cycling, with exceptions noted below.

Inbound

The Centenary Bridge has no shoulder. There is space on the side of the bridge that forms a kind of sealed path, but it is a poor surface.

Outbound

Again, the Centenary Bridge itself has no shoulder, but the approach is downhill so at least a cyclist on the road will have a bit of extra speed. After Fig Tree Pocket Road there is no opportunity to get off the road until after the Centenary Bridge.

History

The missing section inbound from the Centenary Bridge during construction (June 2006).

The bike path was opened on May, 1998 [1], albeit without the section from Fig Tree Pocket Road to the Centenary Bridge. The route at the time ran along Fig Tree Pocket Road to Kenmore Road then turned down the infamous Spinkbrae Street, which connected to the shared path across the Centenary Bridge. Construction on the missing section lasted from December 2004 [2] to September 2006, delayed by a change in contractors responsible for building it.

Following the opening of the new section the path connecting Spinkbrae Street to the bridge was been closed for further work, but reopened some time later.