South Tuggeranong traffic flow arrangements update

Fair said :

Looks like it will all be over very, very soon.

I believe it was all over yesterday arvo. I can tell,

miz said :

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

Wow people will think of anything. Emergency vehicles would have right of way or drive around the traffic. As for bushfires, well its every man for themselves I found out. People in suburbs and streets not on the edge of the suburb, with sprinklers on the roof etc and myself with the fire burning at my backdoor with a hose that was dribbling, because I could get no water pressure. I yelled at a lot of people that week in 2003, doubt it did anything. If the fires managed to go through to these people with no idea, the city would have lost tens of thousands of homes and maybe thousands of lives, but everyone panics and thinks of themselves only. I have noticed there is an at threat map showing which houses are at threat. I bet most people haven’t looked at it.

So yeah even with that road open, it would be absolute chaos and no one would get out anyway.

Looks like it will all be over very, very soon.

To my mind part of the problem is rather than going all the way along Woodcock Drive people are “rat running” via Clare Dennis Ave and Lewis Luxton Ave. I may be wrong but the amount of traffic at those two exits cant all be created by the residents of Gordon. Add to that the Canberra drivers habit of “Ok i have given way for 30 Secs, coming out now, ready or not” and its easy to see why the chaos ensued.

bronal said :

miz said :

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

This isn’t new. The Parkway and Erindale/Yamba Drive were both closed very quickly because of smoke and flying embers during the 2003 fires.

But in that scenario there was still an alternative route, i.e. Athllon Drive. There is no such alternative for South Tuggers residents.

miz said :

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

Not really, in 2003 the worst fire in living history hit the west side of Canberra, no evacuation. In fact the bay advice given on the day was to stay home and not clog the roads.

In 2006 we had a massive storm hit the area that flooded the stormwater drains bank to bank., no evacuation required.

Really, if there needs to be an evacuation on that scale I think that we will all be in the sh#t.

miz said :

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

This isn’t new. The Parkway and Erindale/Yamba Drive were both closed very quickly because of smoke and flying embers during the 2003 fires.

miz said :

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

Unless there are plenty of independent candidates from the affected suburbs standing in next year’s election, don’t expect anything to change.

This traffic problem has highlighted serious fire safety implications for residents in Gordon, Conder and Banks, given that both Tharwa and Woodcock Drives are to my knowledge the only roads out of those suburbs. Ironically both of those roads lead to Drakeford near or at the ESA intersection. How are the authorities going to manage mass evacuations if there are fires on the surrounding hills? How are ambulances going to get through to emergencies in those suburbs if those roads are gridlocked? I hope the government is looking at resolving these rather obvious issues.

andym said :

I too was amazed that there was nobody around this morning at 08:30. Maybe everyone went to work at 05:00 and plan to knockoff at 14:00 and then clog the Kings Hwy?
Can anyone explain why it takes 3 weeks and not 1-2 days to dig a 1m x 30m trench, drop some pipes and and backfill it? Maybe the whole job would take 3 weeks but not the road crossing!
A.

Because it’s not a 1m x 30m trench. From ESA website:
The only other way of installing the sewer pipe is to cut open Tharwa Drive and excavate a large trench (2.5 metres wide and 3.5 metres deep) to accommodate the very large sewer pipe.
http://cdn.esa.act.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/QA-South-Tuggeranong-temporary-road-closure1.pdf

andym said :

I too was amazed that there was nobody around this morning at 08:30. Maybe everyone went to work at 05:00 and plan to knockoff at 14:00 and then clog the Kings Hwy?
Can anyone explain why it takes 3 weeks and not 1-2 days to dig a 1m x 30m trench, drop some pipes and and backfill it? Maybe the whole job would take 3 weeks but not the road crossing!
A.

Well according to the government, they are hoping it will be finished sooner. I have to admit there is absolutely no traffic anywhere else in Canberra this week, except for Lanyon. Did they all decide to not take time off with the rest of Canberra? Actually the servo at Hume was quite busy with people towing boats and caravans as well.