The costs of closing the Esplanade

It’s time to itemise the direct and intangible costs to those who have to navigate the closure.

Here’s the reality. With the Esplanade closed, Surfers Paradise has only one real north–south artery left: Ferny Avenue. The Boulevard? Just one lane and only southbound. Orchid Avenue? One lane, northbound, right through the nightclub and restaurant strip. Traffic circulation is so fragile just a few hundred cars is all it takes for the centre of Surfers to grind to a halt.

It also means that one crash, one tram delay, one gas leak in Cavill Avenue — and traffic across the whole of Surfers is jammed for hours. Emergency services struggle to respond, deliveries get stuck, even grabbing takeaway suddenly comes with a big question mark.

Cutting Surfers with a north and south divide

If you live north of Cavill and want noodles south of Cavill, forget it. If you’re checking into your hotel, better plan it like a military operation because north and south are cut. Simple outings require planning.Travel times that should be ten minutes can blow out to an hour. A visitor’s precious fun time they paid good money for.

The Gold Coast is a north–south city. Surfers Paradise runs north–south too, wedged between the river and the beach. It’s narrow — almost an island — with just three arteries: the Highway, the Boulevard, and the Esplanade. Cut one of them off, and congestion has nowhere to go.

If you are south of Cavill, getting north is not simple. Just use the Highway they say (Ferny Avenue). Oh yeah the one with the hard median strip. There are only two opportunities to cross into the north bound lane or you have to go the full ten blocks south to hit the Ferny Ave junction to turn north. Yeah, 20 blocks, easy for those visitors we rely on.

This is not a call to identify band aid fixes to the resultant pinch points. Chevron Islanfd has four new towers going up. Other massive towers are being planned, developed and built in Surfers. Its the hottest property market in the country. The future is more people.

And remember, the Esplanade isn’t just a pretty beachfront drive. It’s a service artery for the city’s tallest towers. Coaches, taxis, and rideshare drivers rely on it. Without it, they’re burning fuel, losing income, and sitting in gridlock.

Malcolm Lingard sure if you don’t make a living driving I’m sure it’s quite pleasant- but do spare a selfless thought for Uber drivers and taxis coaches who sit in traffic twice as long or more without any extra pay. We make ground transportation work and free flowing traffic is fundamental for a fully functional city. It’s always been congested in SP but now it’s a no go zone for me

This isn’t theory. In fact, back in February 2023 the council admitted it themselves: a full closure of the Esplanade was “removed as a viable option due to the significant impact on the traffic network.” Yet here we are, living the nightmare we all said would happen.

Gold Coast Bulletin
https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au › ... › Gold-coast
18 Feb 2023 — “Full closure of The Esplanade was removed as a viable option due to the significant impact on the overall traffic network,” officers said. “ ...

We all enjoy a car-free stroll during the Air Show — but that’s a special event. Living with permanent road chaos is something else entirely.

A simple time cost calculation

A rough estimate – an extra 30 minutes 6 times a week

There does not appear to be any current economic modelling published for this project. So we have done some basic back of the envelope calculations. %56 of people in Surfers Paradise travel by car according to the Councils 2020 report. In the absence of official figures I present these estimates.

(6 extra 30-minute gridlock trips/week, affecting 54% of 31,000 residents):

Per affected resident: $3,884 / year (conservative time value) — $6,614 / year (higher time value).
Community total (16,740 residents): ≈ $65.0 million / year (conservative) — ≈ $110.7 million / year (higher).

An extra 30 minutes of gridlock, six times a week, imposed on 54% of the local population (16,740 people) would cost each affected resident roughly $3,900–$6,600 per year.

Scaled across the community this represents an annual direct and time cost of about $65–111 million. These figures include residents’ out-of-pocket vehicle running costs (fuel, tyres, servicing) plus the monetary value of their lost time—time costs are the dominant component.

Assumptions

Population considered: 31,000; 54% affected → 16,740 residents.
Extra delay: 30 minutes per trip, 6 trips per week → 3 hours/week → 156 hours/year.
Vehicle running (gridlock-adjusted): AUD $3.70 per extra trip → $3.70 × 6 × 52 = AUD $1,154.40 / year per resident (this covers fuel, tyres, basic wear & tear).
Value of time (two scenarios):
Conservative: AUD $17.50 / hour → 156 × $17.50 = AUD $2,730 / year.
Higher: AUD $35.00 / hour → 156 × $35 = AUD $5,460 / year.

Totals are the sum of running costs + time value.
Gridlock note: gridlock reduces kilometres per delay (so fuel/wear per minute can be lower than free-flow driving) but does not reduce the time lost, which is why time valuation dominates the totals.

Intangible costs

Beyond the dollar figures there are intangible but important harms: increased stress and poorer mental health from long delays, increased noise, more vehicle emissions and local air pollution, fewer opportunities for local shopping (hurting small businesses), and lower community liveability. These are not included in the dollar totals above but strengthen the case for not inducing traffic-flow problems.