Townsville Ring Road

The Townsville Ring Road is a motorway in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The road has been constructed as the new A1/M1 (Bruce Highway) route that bypasses the inner metro area of Townsville. The road was built in 5 stages with the first stage, the Douglas Arterial Road, opened in April 2005 and the most recent section opened in October 2023. Stage 5 commenced construction in July 2021 which included the duplication of the remaining 6-kilometre 2-lane undivided section between Vickers Bridge and Shaw Road in Thuringowa. There is no toll for the use of this motorway.

History
The Townsville Ring Road was built in 5 stages:

Stage 1
Stage 1 was the Douglas Arterial Road, which opened April 2005. It was in initially a two-lane single carriageway, prior to 2012.

Stage 2 & 3
The next stages, the Condon Bypass and Shaw Road extension opened in 2009. Surveying commenced on 24 October 2006 for the Hervey Range Road Interchange. Construction of the interchange began April 2007. Upon completion, the road was designated as part of Highway 1, with the route number A1, with plans to eventually be numbered M1 following duplication of the entire project (including construction of the Bohle plains Extension). Stage 3 included duplication of the Douglas Arterial Road between University Road and Vickers Bridge, completed in 2012.

Stage 4
Stage 4 was the Bohle Plains Extension, which opened December 2016.

Stage 5
Stage 5 included duplication between Vickers Bridge and Shaw Road in Thuringowa, as well as a new grade-separated interchange at Beck Drive. Construction commenced in July 2021 and was completed in October 2023 at a cost of $280 million. The principal contractor for the project is Georgiou Group.

Route description
The Douglas Arterial Road is also known as the Ring Road, as part of the broader ring road project, or the Douglas Motorway. The 5.6 km section is a dual carriageway separated by concrete barriers built in 2012. It also features a six-lane, 250 metre bridge across the Ross River and Riverway Drive which was constructed upstream of the existing Vickers Bridge (named after the famous Vickers family), along with a two-lane bridge over Discovery Drive and University Creek. There are also grade-separated interchanges at University Road and Angus Smith Drive.

As with the existing Douglas section, the arterial comprises two 3.5 metre-wide lanes with two 2 metre-wide shoulders (a total of 11 metres wide). It is built as a motorway with a speed limit of 100 km/h and the usual restrictions (no mopeds, animals, farm vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians) will apply. New exits and entry ramps were constructed on the Riverside Boulevard overpass connecting the suburb to the Arterial.

With the completion of the dual-carriageway Bohle Plains Extension in 2017 (Stage 4), and the completion of the Vickers Bridge to Shaw Road duplication in October 2023 (Stage 5), the Townsville Ring Road route is now a motorway-grade dual-carriageway throughout the entirety of its 19 km length.