Pacific Motorway (Brisbane–Brunswick Heads)
Pacific Motorway –New South Wales | |
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| General information | |
| Type | Motorway |
| Length | 158 km (98 mi) |
| Route number(s) |
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| Former route number |
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| Major junctions | |
| North end | Inner City Bypass |
| Gateway Motorway Logan Motorway Gold Coast Highway for full list see exits. | |
| South end | Pacific Highway Brunswick Heads |
| Location(s) | |
| Major suburbs / towns |
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| Highway system | |
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 at Loganholme and State Route 10 Smith Street Motorway at Gaven and generally six or four lanes at 100 km/h (62 mph) on other sections.
The motorway then passes through the major tourist region of the Gold Coast, the destination for most of the vehicular traffic from Brisbane. It passes attractions such as Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet'n'Wild Water World at Oxenford, and Dreamworld theme parks in Coomera. Within Queensland, more than a $2 billion was spent on the motorway between 1990 and 1998, including widening the road and safety measures.
The motorway then crosses the Queensland/New South Wales border via a section known as the Tugun Bypass, which passes under the runway of Gold Coast Airport. Since 2013, a portion of Pacific Highway south of the border was also designated M1 Pacific Motorway.
The highest point of the motorway is 92 metres (302 ft) AHD on a cutting 130 km (81 mi) south of Brisbane (between Cudgera Creek Rd and Sleepy Hollow Rest Area).