2016-02-02 I&S Committee - Item 4 - Attachment 1 - Noosa Traffic Study

3.2.1 Year 2015 – Beckmans Rd upgrading and St Andrews Drive rat-running

Beckmans Road is a two lane road carrying almost 20,000 vehicles per day, which is the
normal upper capacity limit for a two lane road. In addition, the Beckmans Road intersection
with Eumundi Noosa Road is operating with a DOS of 0.76 in the AM peak and the Beckmans
Road / Sea Eagles Drive intersection is operating with a DOS of 0.88 in the AM peak. All of
these factors indicate that Beckmans Road needs to be duplicated in the near future, at least
between St Andrews Drive and Eumundi Noosa Road.

Upgrading of Beckmans Road (also referenced as the Tewantin Bypass) formed part of the
year 2000 de-maining agreement between Noosa Council and DTMR, which specified that
DTMR would plan, design and construct the bypass. In that regard, negotiation between
Council officers and DTMR, including upgrading of the Beckmans Rd / Eumundi Noosa Rd
intersection, is proceeding.

At the time of writing this report, traffic modelling of the corridor had been completed by DTMR.
This modelling highlighted the existing traffic impacts and the need for upgrading works to
commence as soon as practically possible as the existing road does not meet current demand
and is far from being able to cater for future traffic growth.

Significant rat-running currently occurs along St Andrews Drive because St Andrews Drive is a
“short-cut” for travel between eastern end of Beckmans Road and Butler Street. In that regard,
traffic flows in Beckmans Rd west of St Andrews Dr are only slightly greater than those in St
Andrews Dr. St Andrews Dr is a residential collector street with traffic calming along its length.
St Andrews Dr was not planned or designed to operate as a rat-run. There is the potential to
reduce rat running along St Andrews Dr through innovative planning of the Beckmans Rd
upgrade. One possible solution to this would be as generally depicted in Figure 7, in which
case 4 lanes would be required along the full length of Beckmans Rd.

While the degrees of saturation at the Beckmans Rd / Cooroy Noosa Rd intersection are not
high, this is primarily because the volumes of traffic turning right from Beckmans Rd into
Cooroy Noosa Rd (toward the north-east) are relatively low, with the vast majority of the
demand for that right turn movement currently rat-running northbound along St Andrews Dr.
Even so, average delays of about 30 seconds per vehicle are currently experienced by vehicles
undertaking that critical right turn movement from Beckmans Road into Cooroy Noosa Road.
Upgrading this intersection to a roundabout configuration would significantly reduce those
delays, would contribute to a reduction in rat running along St Andrews Dr, and would be
essential if the Beckmans Rd arrangement depicted in Figure 7 (or similar duplication) is
implemented.

Duplication of Beckmans Road would require a dual lane roundabout at the Sea Eagles Drive
intersection, which would resolve the existing capacity issue at that intersection.




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