History

The role of Highfields Road is progressively changing, from a traditional through route for traffic to and from Toowoomba, to a road that motorists use to travel to the local destinations now available within central Highfields. This changing role has presented the challenge of how to provide the appropriate transport infrastructure on Highfields Road to service the local function of a town centre, whilst maintaining the through function of distributing traffic to and from Toowoomba.

These works are the first stage in the implementation of the Central Highfields Master Plan which was developed with the Highfields Community and published in 2018. This was a holistic process to integrate urban planning, infrastructure planning and provide the Community with the opportunity to provide feedback on their long-term vision for the emerging Highfields Central Business District.

Above: Consultation timeline for the Central Highfields Master Plan

From the consultation completed as part of the Central Highfields Master Plan, and the following Structure Plan community workshops there was clear desire from the community for a modern, accessible, connected and safe town centre. The overall key themes from the consultation were:

Council’s purchase of land in 2018 the work completed in the Master Plan and Structure Plan, have presented the opportunity to address this changing role of Highfields Road and the adjoining road links to holistically integrate urban planning, infrastructure planning and Council’s and the community’s aspirations for a modern, accessible, connected and safe town centre. The future development of this land is separate to this roadworks project.

For further background information on this roadworks project, as well as the future vision for Central Highfields, please review the following documents available on this page as part of the document library:

• Council Report - Central Highfields - direction for design of the Highfields/ Kratzke/ O’Brien Roads intersection and related road links – endorsed by Council on 15 December 2020
• Central Highfields Structure Plan – endorsed by Council on 17 December 2019
• Central Highfields Master Plan – endorsed by Council on 17 July 2018