Upgrade Complete on Wentworth Avenue

It will be interesing to see if the new technique works to prevent, over time the craking that is the cause of the clickity clack on this road.

I give them 5 stars for the job, although its obvious more of the road needs to be repaired. I assume it was budget reasons why the whole stretch on both sides wasn’t done, but what will happen is we’ll get this road continually being fixed in the future extending the roadworks out for longer. They could have done a single lane in both directions at the same time as they did for the section completed.

justin heywood said :

JC said :

As for our roads being so shite, I suggest you get out of town. Drive to Sydney and go down some of the suburban roads and you will see they do exactly the same as they do here. The difference with Sydney however is the main roads cop such a hiding from heavy vehicles that unlike Canberra roads they get so damaged that ripping them up and putting down hot mix is the only way to go. But our roads do not cop anywhere near that pounding.

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JC, you seem to have a suspiciously detailed knowledge of road construction. Is there something about the roadbuilding history, substrate or surroundings of Wentworth Ave that causes it to be as rough as it is?

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Yep it has a concrete base. There are only other road I know if in Canberra like it is Brisbane Ave is another. Brisbane Ave is exposed but Wenthworth Ave is covered with hot mix for what ever reason.

The reason it rides rough is becuase it is slab construction and the slabs move, as opposed to the more modern concrete roads where it is continuous with expansion cut in. ala parts of Federal/Hume highways

In fact if you look at the first post it talks about some of the special techniques they had to use on Wentworth Ave owing to the concrete base.

The reason they have kept it is it makes a good long lasting road, it just becomes rough when it moves.

Now go to Sydney and you will find a whole heap of roads with concrete bases that drive like Wentworth Ave, especially in the inner south west. Kingsgrove, Tempe etc

JC said :

As for our roads being so shite, I suggest you get out of town. Drive to Sydney and go down some of the suburban roads and you will see they do exactly the same as they do here. The difference with Sydney however is the main roads cop such a hiding from heavy vehicles that unlike Canberra roads they get so damaged that ripping them up and putting down hot mix is the only way to go. But our roads do not cop anywhere near that pounding.

.

JC, you seem to have a suspiciously detailed knowledge of road construction. Is there something about the roadbuilding history, substrate or surroundings of Wentworth Ave that causes it to be as rough as it is?

.

Jere13 said :

I thought people were joking when they said only a section of ONE SIDE of Wentworth Avenue would be repaired. This is crazy. How bad does the other side need to get before they will do anything about it.

At least it was asphalt unlike the reported 90% of our roads that are now single layer spray seal (loose gravel sprayed with tar). Which incidentally is the lowest grade of sealed road. That’s right, we are getting the rock bottom lowest grade. I’m sure they would have us riding on dirt roads if they could.

Honestly I think Canberra/the ACT now officially has the worst roads in the country.

Most of Canberra roads are chipseal over old hot mix asphalt, due to the road surface still being relatively ok, so they reseal and put the rocks on for grip. It would be shear financial stupidity to rip up a perfectly good road surface just to reseal it when it can be done other ways at a reasonable cost.

The single layer spray that you talk of is what they generally use on roads that are not intended to remain for too long in their current form. A good example is Horse Park Drive where they built quick and cheap because the final layout and route was not know. They did the same with part of Gungahlin Drive when it used to run into Sandford Street Mitchell. Of course the old bit is LONG gone, so of course it made sense to do it with what you describe as “rock bottom lowest grade”.

As for our roads being so shite, I suggest you get out of town. Drive to Sydney and go down some of the suburban roads and you will see they do exactly the same as they do here. The difference with Sydney however is the main roads cop such a hiding from heavy vehicles that unlike Canberra roads they get so damaged that ripping them up and putting down hot mix is the only way to go. But our roads do not cop anywhere near that pounding.

Then drive home through Bathurst and Cowra and then come back and tell me how bad Canberra roads are.

I thought people were joking when they said only a section of ONE SIDE of Wentworth Avenue would be repaired. This is crazy. How bad does the other side need to get before they will do anything about it.

At least it was asphalt unlike the reported 90% of our roads that are now single layer spray seal (loose gravel sprayed with tar). Which incidentally is the lowest grade of sealed road. That’s right, we are getting the rock bottom lowest grade. I’m sure they would have us riding on dirt roads if they could.

Honestly I think Canberra/the ACT now officially has the worst roads in the country.

benno1 said :

That road (well the rest of it anyway) is the worst road in Canberra.

There are a number of streets in Narrabundah,Griffith and Ainslie which are bumpy as hell in parts and I reckon on par with Wentworth Ave.

Nice job.

Wow. That felt… good.

benno1 said :

Just so happens that Gillard owns an apartment which exits out onto Wentworth ave smack in the middle of where the new works have been completed.. funny that’s the section they chose to do isn’t it?

That road (well the rest of it anyway) is the worst road in Canberra.

Got a source for that?

Just so happens that Gillard owns an apartment which exits out onto Wentworth ave smack in the middle of where the new works have been completed.. funny that’s the section they chose to do isn’t it?

That road (well the rest of it anyway) is the worst road in Canberra.