The state government and the wealthy Toowoomba family behind the region's privately owned airport are at loggerheads over the funding of a new road link.
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Eponymous family-owned company Wagners has asked the Queensland government to fund a $15 million overpass on the new $1.46 billion Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
The overpass would connect with a new southern access road to Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, which Wagners built, owned and operated.
Wagners managing director Denis Wagner said the overpass intersection would be about four kilometres south of the planned access to Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road, which was currently the airport's main road access point.
"We will build, at our cost, all the connecting roads to the overpass, but the work on the overpass, we feel, should be done by the government," he said.
"It will make the delivery of perishable freight and local freight far more efficient into the airport.
"This is not for the airport; this is for local agricultural producers and the public. It just makes their access into the airport a lot more efficient."
Mr Wagner said it was the "ideal time" for the overpass to be built.
"What we're saying to the government is that there is a one-off opportunity to build this thing while the (Toowoomba Second Range Crossing) road is under construction," he said.
"It will cost you significantly less to build it now than it will at some point in the future, when the road is under traffic, and we think you should build it."
But the request was met with resistance from the state government, with a Department of Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman insisting it was up to the Wagners to fund.
"A number of conditions were applied as part of the approval process that allowed the Wagner Group to develop the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport," she said.
"One of those conditions requires the Wagner Group to fund an interchange access to the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing as well as upgrading a section of Toowoomba-Cecil Plains Road."
But that might not be the end of the matter.
"Transport and Main Roads and the Wagner Group are currently in discussions about this matter," the TMR spokeswoman said.
Whatever the result of those discussions, Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio said the new connection between the new road and the Wellcamp airport needed to be built.
"It's essential that it be connected, but no doubt it's a commercial decision for both parties," he said.
"The airport is a very important part of the infrastructure in Toowoomba and needs to be connected to every possible road and I'd imagine there'd be some commercial negotiations going on.
"I'd hope the outcome is positive for the region."
Mr Wagner said freight services in and out of Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, which has seen regular weekly 747 services to Hong Kong introduced, would "increase significantly" in the coming months.
"There are opportunities all around south-east Asia and the Middle East for air freight and what this overpass will do is give our producers quick and efficient access to the transport link," he said.
"We see that as a government responsibility, not as Wagners' responsibility."
