16 May 2007

A quick trip down the GDE

| johnboy
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So this morning I drove and NTP operated the camera and here’s a look at the newly completed sections of the Gungahlin Drive Extension from the Barton Highway to Belconnen Way.


[Music: Don’t Delay by Utility]

Interesting they’ve got special roo fences along there which are designed to let animals get away from the road while deterring them from getting in. Also there is a very impressive cycle path which has not been neglected while cutting the design of the road down to single lane each way.

UPDATED: GDE goes international! The video got two youtube honours!

“#31 – Most Viewed (Today) – Autos & Vehicles – All
#25 – Most Viewed (Today) – Autos & Vehicles – English
#10 – Most Linked (Today) – Autos & Vehicles – All

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Cool video.

Once the whole thing is finished I don’t think it’ll save any time going to and from civic etc during peak hours Mon-Fri.

Growling Ferret11:26 am 17 May 07

I went through at ten to 8 this morning, and it was superb. The trip from Gungahlin to Barton was completed inside 20 minutes – its never happened before…

So SBN, community comment can make a difference it would seem.
And it’s interesting that RA does a better job of promoting GDE issues than Roads ACT seems to be able to manage…
Jase I didn’t believe you about Victoria allowing u-turns at lights, but it is indeed true acording to the Vic road rules. Stoopid bloody mexicans.

swissbignose10:52 am 16 May 07

Interestingly enough, traffic arrangements today had the exit from the GDE go into its own lane (for about 30 metres), with the traffic from Caswell Drive prevented from turning into the outside lane (the one otherwise to be used by GDE exiters).

Should be a better flow. I’ll have to try it again tomorrow.

Al, the u-turn at traffic lights with/without signs is one of the best cases why the Australian Road rules (1999) is a farce, its legal without a sign permitting it in victoria and illegal in tassie and NSW, looking for the ACT ruling at the moment

I’m not game to take it in peak hour, but it sure is handy getting from Gungahlin to ANU for sports practice on Sunday arvos. Only takes five minutes off the trip but requires much less thinking than the back way through Lyneham, O’Connor etc.

U-turn at traffic lights is illegal unless signed as OK. Do people not understand this most basic of traffic laws…?

While I’m sure it makes perfect fiscal sense for a city this size, this ‘one lane now, the other lane later’ approach really shits me.

actually, it now appears broken from my internode connection

Single lane! hahahahahah! nice future proofing there, dubasses.

I feel ill as a result of both the camera work, and the girl singing. Someone put her out of her misery.

Instead of Caswell, take Bindubi and turn right onto Belco. Bonus, you miss the construction fun.

Driving from Gungahlin last night I wasn’t sure if it was Baron Highway ahead. I couldn’t read the sign before committing because there was a huge exit sign blocking my view. Brilliant!

Save-the-Ridge? Sweet justice to those rat bags!

Al when the next phase opens the GDE will be great on weekends at least, I live north side, most of my mates live at wonden, will make life much easier. Andy, the uturn at the calvary lights is exactly what I have been doing after coming up caswell and wanting to head home

swissbignose6:43 pm 15 May 07

Ironically, there appears to be a solution available, but for some reason it is blocked off to traffic. There appears to be two turning lanes going into Belconnen Way from the GDE. The one that is blocked off would appear to allow a car to have exclusive use of the lane for 30 metres before it merges with the third lane of Belconnen Way. That’d be enough.

roccon, why would you bother goin into calvary ? Just do a full U-Turn at the lights where you turn into calvary anyway..

johnboy, that cycle path looks great – and it is – but it wasn’t flattened when they did the road… not that I don’t enjoy riding up hills…

Jase, that’s not much more than it always takes to turn right from Phillip into Majura every morning between 8 and 9, (if you are silly enough to not go around the rat runs…).
Not meaning to downplay the hopelessness of the GDE situation in any way though.

growling ferret.

last friday because of that give way sign it took about 15 minutes from getting to the back of the queue at belco way to get on to it. there has to be a better way for the 2 roads to intersect or we have to wait until september when the next phase opens

all the problems have been solved by installing a “No Entry” sign to the pickup lane of the childcare centre at Calvary Hospital (Mary Potter Circuit).

Let me explain………

seems drivers were heading westbound Belconnen Way, turning into Hayden Drive then into Calvary, doing a U turn at the childcare centre then heading left onto Hayden and back east on Belconnen Way to get onto the GDE. Ingenious of the drivers to think it up and the government for fixing it with the “No Entry” sign……..(sarcasm, what sarcasm)

Don’t get me started on that one! That damn intersection of Phillip and Majura!. All it needs is a give way sign bunged in for the westbound Phillip Ave traffic. Stop all the ratrunning and you stop the bank-up of cars all the way back into the roundabout at times.
I’ve taken this up with Hargreaves, and await his reply…

Growling Ferret3:42 pm 15 May 07

I’ll give a peak hour Ainslie rat run report tomorrow…

I think RA ground to a bit of a halt there for a while. Took yonks to load anything off the site here after I came back from lunch.

On the GDE2, there have been reports on 666 of taking 30 minutes to get from the Barton Hwy onto Belconnen Way, due to the dumb give way sign.
I also note Hargreaves quoted in CT yesterday as saying the arrangements were ‘widely advertised” BS John!
I looked all over the ACT Roads website for a notice or media release to no avail. The only thing the search facility threw up for “Gungahlin Drive” was an out of date link that redirected to a new page that also was way out of date (try it yourself).
There ws a 1/3 page colour ad in Saturdays CT but it was buried down the back below the classifieds I think it was…
Supposedly lots has been done to ‘correct’ the problem. So I’m interested if it has had any impact on the peak commute inbound???

Funny you should mention the turning lane GF. We got to the end and wondered amongst all the red plastic if there was a lane, a car whistling by quickly informed us there was not.

Then the cunning stunt behind my started leaning on his horn because I wasn’t jumping out into the column of traffic.

I suppressed the urge to get out of the car and explain the error of his ways to him. He was, however, treated to a lengthy examination of my middle finger.

might be some caching going on too Sammy.

Growling Ferret2:23 pm 15 May 07

in a rare case of it working at work, it did here….

Out of curiosity, why isn’t there a dedicated lane for the first 200m of Belconnen Way to allow traffic to merge rather than a silly Give Way sign?

Has anyone gone that way in peak time – ie 7:45 to 8:30 this week?

I noticed the Barton Highway/Gundaroo Drive parking lot was the same as always at 7:45 this morning…

nope, works from here.
or at least, seems to. due to my work bandwidth limits, i’m not going to view it just now though

It’s odd because i’m with Internode, and I believe they have direct peering to YouTube.

Nup, still not loading. Anyone else having this issue?

It’s been just uploaded in the last few minutes, but it’s working fine from here.

Might still be shuffling around their mirror pool.

Either here, or directly on YouTube. Other videos load fine.

I can’t get the YouTube video to load.

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