Brisbane City Council's controversial decision to close a popular thoroughfare in Brisbane's south for up to two years has been overturned after overwhelming pressure from frustrated parents whose school travel time increased by up to an hour.
A notification from Transurban in September 2017 to permanently close Illaweena Street at Drewvale sparked outrage from State Labor MP Duncan Pegg as well as more than 1200 residents who signed an online petition against the closure.
The decision by Brisbane City Council to permanently close the street was so that new Gateway Motorway bridges and a fauna arch crossing could be built as part of Transurban's $450 million Logan Motorway Enhancement Project.
The September 6 works notice said the "closure would be implemented from 8pm on 15 September 2017 until 2019".
In September, a Transurban spokeswoman said the council had directed the company to close the road for the whole period rather than have single lanes operating.
The closure of Illaweena Street forced parents dropping their children off at Stretton State College to allow up to an extra hour to get to school and witness illegal u-turns and trucks running red lights along the way.
On Monday, Mr Pegg announced Illaweena Street would re-open on January 22.
"Although this decision is well overdue, I welcome news Illaweena Street will re-open on school days," he said.
Mr Pegg said the level of political interference in the decision to fully close the street was extraordinary.
"Lord Mayor Quirk needs to change council processes to prevent this kind of political interference from happening again," he said.
"I am more than happy to work with Graham Quirk, Angela Owen (councillor for Calamvale ward) and the BCC to ensure that they learn from their mistakes."
Mr Pegg said he lodged a right to information request with the office of the information commissioner to see the detailed assessment process the council said happened, but while it had been accepted he had not yet received any evidence the assessment existed.
"I will continue to push to obtain the documents that have been withheld by BCC," he said.
Council's infrastructure chairwoman Amanda Cooper said Transurban's current road closure was scheduled to expire on January 22 and the council had since received and assessed an application to continue works.
"As promised, Stretton State College and its P&C has been consulted during the assessment process of this proposed permit, and the new permit is a result of these discussions along with continued feedback from Transurban in relation to their progress of works."
Stretton State College P&C president Louise Nann said the past few months of the road closure had been a nightmare.
"The pressure of the parents (now the street will reopen) is going to be fantastic," she said.
"To know the little people can win against the big people of the council is, well, there was a lot of yahoo-ing."
Illaweena Street will be fully closed on weekends, school holidays, some public holidays and nights, with one lane open at all other times to allow traffic.
