Pacific Motorway (Brisbane-Ballina)

Pacific Motorway Queensland–New South Wales

Type	Motorway
Length	158 km (98 mi)
Route number(s)	M3 Brisbane CBD-Eight Mile Plains M1 Eight Mile Plains - NSW/Qld Border M1 NSW/Qld Border - Brunswick Heads
Former route number	Queensland: Metroad 3 National Route 1 Alternate National Route 1 New South Wales: National Route 1 (1955-2013)
North end	Inner City Bypass
	Gateway Motorway Logan Motorway Gold Coast Highway for full list see exits.
South end	Pacific Highway Brunswick Heads
Major suburbs / towns	Queensland: Rochedale, Loganholme, Beenleigh, Nerang, Mudgeeraba, Tugun New South Wales: Tweed Heads, Banora Point, Chinderah, Brunswick Heads, Tyagarah
Highways in Australia National Highway Freeways in Australia Highways in Queensland Highways in New South Wales

The Pacific Motorway is a motorway in Australia between Brisbane, Queensland, and Brunswick Heads, New South Wales, through the New South Wales–Queensland border at Tweed Heads.

The motorway starts at Coronation Drive at Milton in Brisbane, The Brisbane city section of the motorway is often referred to by its former name, the Riverside Expressway. The motorway is about 150 kilometres (93 mi) long, and features eight traffic lanes with a 110 km/h (68 mph) speed limit between the M6 Logan Motorway and Smith Street Motorway and generally six or four lanes at 100 km/h (62 mph) on other sections. The motorway passes through the major tourist region of the Gold Coast, the destination for most of the vehicular traffic from Brisbane. More than A$2 billion was spent on the motorway between 1990 and 1998, including widening the road and safety measures.

The motorway passes Gold Coast attractions such as Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet'n'Wild Water World, and Dreamworld, which are among the most popular theme parks in Australia. Since 2008 the motorway connects with the Tweed Heads bypass in New South Wales.

There are also plans to progressively widen the four lane section from Nerang to Tugun to six lanes. The first section of this upgrade (Nerang to Varsity Lakes) was completed in May 2012. Planning is ongoing for the remaining section of the upgrade (Varsity Lakes to Tugun).

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Wikipedia