21 May 2015

Majura Parkway opens, southbound, to Fairbairn Avenue

| Canfan
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Today Canberra motorists will benefit from another section of Majura Parkway opening with the southbound section of road to Fairbairn Avenue opened this afternoon.

“The southbound section of the Majura Parkway opened to traffic between the
Federal Highway and Fairbairn Avenue this afternoon,” Tony Gill, Director, Roads ACT said today.

“This follows the opening of the northbound section of road last week which allowed traffic to access the parkway from Fairbairn Avenue.

“The direct link this section of the Majura Parkway provides has improved travel times and provides the safety benefits the new road has to offer.

“Traffic management arrangements will remain in place, southbound, at the
Fairbairn Avenue intersection while the southbound exit ramp and Molonglo River bridge are completed. Traffic travelling towards the city will be redirected left onto Fairbairn Avenue and right onto Morshead Drive.

“Traffic controllers have monitored the northbound carriageway to ensure drivers have transitioned to using the new section of road, with similar arrangements in place for the southbound section.

“Southbound traffic has been able to use the Majura Parkway north of Tambreet Street since earlier this year but will now enjoy the benefits of a direct road between Canberra’s north and city area.

“Work to construct the Molonglo River bridge and Fairbairn Avenue bridge continues and, once finished, they will connect the Majura Parkway to the Monaro Highway, providing the full time saving benefits associated with construction of the Majura Parkway,” Mr Gill said.

The Majura Parkway project, jointly funded by the federal and ACT governments, is the single largest road infrastructure investment ever made in the ACT and is due to be completed in mid-2016.

(ACT Government media release)

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JC said :

Kim F said :

A bit of a shame that East bound traffic on Morshead Drive wanting to join Monaro Highway Southbound will need to navigate a set of traffic lights rather than a cloverleaf or similar!

East bound heading to the north will be worse as they will have to go under the road down to Fairbairn Ave, then back under the road and turn, as I beleive the bit of Moreshead that currently runs parallel to the viaduct will be gone when finished. Ideally a ramp directly off Morsehead Drive would have been good.

That said it is a bit hard to do either of this considering the ACT doesn’t own the land. To do the clover leaf like you suggested would mean loosing one of the RMC ovals, and a ramp like I suggested would mean taking up RMC land too on the western side of the viaduct.

Loosing? You’ve lost me…

Kim F said :

A bit of a shame that East bound traffic on Morshead Drive wanting to join Monaro Highway Southbound will need to navigate a set of traffic lights rather than a cloverleaf or similar!

East bound heading to the north will be worse as they will have to go under the road down to Fairbairn Ave, then back under the road and turn, as I beleive the bit of Moreshead that currently runs parallel to the viaduct will be gone when finished. Ideally a ramp directly off Morsehead Drive would have been good.

That said it is a bit hard to do either of this considering the ACT doesn’t own the land. To do the clover leaf like you suggested would mean loosing one of the RMC ovals, and a ramp like I suggested would mean taking up RMC land too on the western side of the viaduct.

I reckon the whole project has moved extremely quickly given the size of it. I often travel through there and have never been seriously delayed in my travel times which is also suprising given the amount of work going on.

On the whole, I think it’s been well done. Will have to go and take a drive on it this weekend I think. Now all we need is a link around to the Barton to try and get all the B-doubles to stop taking the Civic/Northbourne route.

A bit of a shame that East bound traffic on Morshead Drive wanting to join Monaro Highway Southbound will need to navigate a set of traffic lights rather than a cloverleaf or similar!

Madam Cholet6:22 pm 22 May 15

It has beaten the Bowen Drive debacle so far.

arescarti42 said :

Credit where credit is due, the construction of the Majura Parkway seems to have gone both pretty quickly and smoothly, especially when compared to the debacle that was the GDE.

When canning ACT labor for that do remember back to the roll the ACT Liebrals had in that role with the help of their federal friends who were in power at the time and forced a change through the NCA that costed more and put the GDE into a prolonged legal battle which prevented its start and chewed money and meant when it was ready it was already at capacity.

If they had of been able to build to their preferred route it would have been a different story.

switch said :

JC said :

They have now started doing work on the viaduct and when the final bridge is ready the whole road will be ready.

So they can open it all over again! Any excuse for a photo-op.

Seriously? They have done what they have said when they have said, well not quite earlier than they said. Would you prefer they keep the new lanes closed until the whole lot is ready or do we get use outbid what is actually a good bit of road.

As I said the reason the rest isn’t ready is simply because of physics. It takes time for that amount of land to settle.

Credit where credit is due, the construction of the Majura Parkway seems to have gone both pretty quickly and smoothly, especially when compared to the debacle that was the GDE.

So has it started losing money already?

😀

JC said :

John Moulis said :

There seems to have been a huge stuffup concerning the construction of the section south of Fairbairn Ave linking the Monaro Highway. For a very long time motorists passed this section and saw no work being done at all. An archway went in at Duntroon, there was a bankup of dirt but no actual construction. Indeed, construction of the bridge over Fairbairn Ave only started around two months ago. Why has there been this delay in constructing the Monaro Highway link and why was there no work done on this section for more than two years?

There has been no stuff up or delay what so ever, how this it is being delivered is how it was planned, in actual fact it is ahead of schedule.

As to what you noticed and as to why the bridge and viaduct sections are taking ‘so long’ is all to do with physics. You cannot build a dirt viaduct and embankments of that size and then build a road straight on it. The earth needs to settle and compact which takes time. Hence as you have observed little work being done in that part of the job.

They have now started doing work on the viaduct and when the final bridge is ready the whole road will be ready.

Pfft, you with your reason and your science and your ‘engineering’ if that’s even a real thing. I saw it with my own eyes.

JC said :

They have now started doing work on the viaduct and when the final bridge is ready the whole road will be ready.

So they can open it all over again! Any excuse for a photo-op.

John Moulis said :

There seems to have been a huge stuffup concerning the construction of the section south of Fairbairn Ave linking the Monaro Highway. For a very long time motorists passed this section and saw no work being done at all. An archway went in at Duntroon, there was a bankup of dirt but no actual construction. Indeed, construction of the bridge over Fairbairn Ave only started around two months ago. Why has there been this delay in constructing the Monaro Highway link and why was there no work done on this section for more than two years?

There has been no stuff up or delay what so ever, how this it is being delivered is how it was planned, in actual fact it is ahead of schedule.

As to what you noticed and as to why the bridge and viaduct sections are taking ‘so long’ is all to do with physics. You cannot build a dirt viaduct and embankments of that size and then build a road straight on it. The earth needs to settle and compact which takes time. Hence as you have observed little work being done in that part of the job.

They have now started doing work on the viaduct and when the final bridge is ready the whole road will be ready.

Well done!

There seems to have been a huge stuffup concerning the construction of the section south of Fairbairn Ave linking the Monaro Highway. For a very long time motorists passed this section and saw no work being done at all. An archway went in at Duntroon, there was a bankup of dirt but no actual construction. Indeed, construction of the bridge over Fairbairn Ave only started around two months ago. Why has there been this delay in constructing the Monaro Highway link and why was there no work done on this section for more than two years?

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