10. APP E. Traffic Impact Assessment Report

 

PEKOL TRAFFIC & TRANSPORT

4.0 TRAFFIC OPERATIONS

4.1

Assessment Scenarios

4.1.1 Development Staging

It is standard practice when analysing future year traffic operations to adopt a ten year design horizon

from the year of full occupation. Therefore, the following development staging has been adopted:

== —- Traffic Counts: 2014
== Development Application: 2014
== _ Construction and Operation: 2017
— Operation plus 10 years: 2027

4.1.2 Background Traffic Growth

An Annual Volume Report for Eumundi - Noosa Road has been obtained from DTMR at a counter site
(Number 20032) located just north of the intersection of Hollet Road, approximately 3km south of the
site. This data is attached in Appendix E. Data from this counter site indicates that the two-way volumes
on Eumundi - Noosa Road have decreased by 3.3% per annum over the last 10 years and by 0.9% per

annum over the last five years.

However, while traffic flow volumes on Eumundi Road have been decreasing in recent years, to be
conservative, we have adopted a nominal background traffic growth rate of 1% per annum. This rate has
been applied to the observed traffic volumes on all approaches except those that do not cater for through
traffic such as the southern arm of Eenie Creek Road at the Eumundi Road / Eenie Creek Road
roundabout. The application of this rate equates to a 14% increase in local traffic volumes over the next 13

years (2014 to 2027).

Counter site 20032 does not include a breakdown of the average traffic flows by week. Therefore, we have
obtained an Annual Volume Report for counter site 20264, also on Eumundi - Noosa Road,
approximately 250m west of Emu Mountain Road (included in Appendix E). The weekly average profile
for this counter site indicates that, in 2013, the week ending 13 November (the comparable week to that in
which the traffic surveys were undertaken in 2014) was around 90% of the absolute peak. Therefore, it is
considered that this represents a reasonable design period for this assessment (ie not the absolute peak but
at the upper end of the busiest times of the year) and we have not adjusted our traffic flow data to account

for any seasonality.

P:\2014-15\15-067 LIONEL DONOVAN DRIVE, NOOSAVILLE\REPORTS\139 EUMUNDI ROAD, NOOSAVILLE TIA REPORT.DOCX 16