QUEENSLAND (BRISBANE) METROADS

Information sign showing the Brisbane Metroad System, located on the Bruce Highway at Burpengary. Source: Michael Greenslade, October 2004.

Brisbane, along with Sydney, is one of only two Australian cities to have adopted a Metroad route marking system. The Department of Main Roads introduced the Brisbane system in 1995, three years after the first Metroad was introduced in Sydney. The initial system consisted of routes 1-5 but a sixth was added following the opening of the Gateway Motorway extension (Southern Brisbane Bypass) in 1998.

The Metroads form the priority routes into and through the metropolitan area and, in Brisbane’s case, generally bypassing the Central Business District. The one exception to this rule is Metroad 3, which forms the major access into the CBD from the north and south. Brisbane’s geography has meant that no major routes from the east or west that enter the CBD seem worthy of having a Metroad route marker and thus a state route marker suffices. Unfortunately, when QMR introduced the Metroad system they did not think very hard about the ramifications the move would have on the state route system. Whilst National Route 15 was decommissioned in favour of being a State Route, no other major changes to the system were effected and thus we have the ludicrous situation where State Route 22 is split into two sections (separated by a ~15km gap) and State Route 20 is split into 3 sections! Details of the changes to state routes can be found under the state route section of this site.

As part of the introduction of alpha-numeric route marking in Queensland, the Metroad system has been eroded so that only one full route and two part-routes remain. Metroad 1 made way for M1 in 2005, and Metroads 3 and 4 followed in 2008. Large sections of Metroads 2 and 5 were also converted to alpha-numeric routes, leaving only the aforementioned three routes. What makes this situation even more of a joke than it first appears, is that the DMR has no plans to convert or decommision the remaining sections.

List of active Queensland Metroads

	Metroad 2 Granard Rd, Riawena Rd, Kessels Rd & Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Rd
	Metroad 5 Western Arterial Road (Toowong to Kedron)
	Metroad 6 Logan Motorway (Gateway Motorway to Pacific Motorway)