Airport Link not reaching targets

It's slashed travel times, bypassed 18 sets of traffic lights, and its operators have always had high aims.

They say the Airport Link tunnel has made a solid start, despite the first week's figures falling well short of the three month projections.

In fact 60,000 more vehicles a day will have to use the tunnel for it to reach its target.

Airport Link's operators estimate 165,000 vehicles a day will use the tunnel after the toll is introduced.

"At the end of the three months of toll free, I've always said it would be around 130,000 to 135,000 vehicles. I am confident that we are going to get up to that level," Dr Ray Wilson from BrisConnections says.

On average 77,320 vehicles have driven through the tunnel each day. 85.3 per cent of them were cars, 13.4 per cent were utes and trucks and 1.3 per cent were motorcycles.

"That's a real positive because that's taking that kind of traffic off the surface roads," Dr Wilson explained.

"And therefore it's helping achieve the government's objective of freeing up the surface roads and reducing the congestion."

In comparison, 125,000 per day pass over the Captain Cook Bridge, 100,000 over the Gateway Motorway, 95,000 over the Story Bridge while 24,000 vehicles drive through Brisbane's other tunnel, the Clem 7.

If the projections come to fruition, Airport Link would be Brisbane's busiest road by far, reaping $4.90 each way.

"It looks like it's a fast journey. People will have to make up their own minds about the value of paying for the trip," Treasurer Tim Nicholls said.

So far BrisConnections, the company which forked out $4.9 billion to fund the project, says about 35 per cent of drivers are doing the full 6.7 kilometre long trip, and that is in line with its projections.

Already it has helped out Brisbane's first tunnel.

"There's been a one-third uplift in the Clem 7 tunnel since the Airport Link opened, so it's part of a network," Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.