7 July 2010

Another road works thread!

| buzz819
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Of late, just about every major road in Canberra has been undergoing road works, this in itself can be a bit of a pain, but I look forward to it all being complete and Canberra being able to grow.

I don’t know how long it has been like this, but I drove through the Glenloch Interchange today, heading south, and found that they had opened up an extra lane for south bound traffic, making it so the northerners do not have to fight to win at the from one lane!

Colour me impressed and well done to the Road Workers who have been working their guts out in this cold winter that we are having in the ACT, credit where credit is due.

Hopefully all the bridges can be done in a timely manner and the debacle known as the GDE can be completed!

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Are you aware if the improvements included a ‘cycle lane’ ??

MelonHead said :

…..or would make Heath Robinson quite jealous.

ah, Heath Robinson, a genius, sadly little known by today’s callow youth…….

does anyone know if they are going to be able to squeeze 4 lanes under the overpass where Bandjalong cres joins Gunghalin Dr? cause if they don’t then they are just shifting the choke point a few hundred meters up the road.

Why not get out a ruler and figure it out yourself? Seriously, give the planners in this city a little credit. Sheesh.

Gungahlin Al6:37 am 08 Jul 10

Fisho said :

You lot are missing the point.

We had Limestone Lil.
When do we get another Cultural Icon such as GDE Gersha or Parkway Paula?

Clearly I gotta get me a bit a more of this culture stuff? 🙂

On a slightly related topic. I seem to remember the first GDE bridge over Belconnen Way was constructed as a pair of balanced cantilever spans meeting in the middle. The whole process barely impacted the traffic below.

While the current construction event of the second bridge seems to only happen at night with lane closures and a spread of daymakers. (What??? Yes the term for a set of lights on a retractable arm, with a generator attached, is “daymaker”)But I digress. This second span seems to progress very slowly with the wild scaffold that could almost pass for art, or would make Heath Robinson quite jealous.

So what is the story? Are the efficient bridge builders busy, to busy to come back? Is there a shonky deal with some company that underquoted the first? What do you think?

You lot are missing the point.

We had Limestone Lil.
When do we get another Cultural Icon such as GDE Gersha or Parkway Paula?

I’m sure a certain demographic of the community would benefit from the availability of stress relief while partaking in the 24 minutes a day of traffic jams we are forced to cope with….

nexus6: Yes, there’s plenty of room under that bridge – the median is very wide. Take a look on Google Earth.

Having observed that traffic while travelling in the other direction every day for about a year, I reckon the choke is/was actually the merging of the southbound traffic from William Hovell and Caswell Dr causing Caswell Dr to back up.

thy_dungeonman5:37 pm 07 Jul 10

bd84 said :

It would be good if they signposted that the lane coming from the City off Parkes Way now merges into the lanes from Caswell Dr just before the Lady Denman Dr exit, rather than getting a surprise in the dark when the lane ends with no warning.

I got that exact surprise the other night, luckily there was some space in front of the car in the next lane, although it had only 1 headlight on the right side so I could hardly see it anyway, maybe it had already gone hat way before and not been so lucky?

does anyone know if they are going to be able to squeeze 4 lanes under the overpass where Bandjalong cres joins Gunghalin Dr? cause if they don’t then they are just shifting the choke point a few hundred meters up the road.

It would be good if they signposted that the lane coming from the City off Parkes Way now merges into the lanes from Caswell Dr just before the Lady Denman Dr exit, rather than getting a surprise in the dark when the lane ends with no warning.

i too wanted to thank the lovely smiling chap on the roadworks i went through yesterday, helping old ladies and making the traffic flow smoothly; but his hair was untidy and that’s a disgrace!

he should be sacked and someone should write to the government to alert the chief miser that he should spend more on worker hygeine and appearance and less on monoliths dedicated to himself in the name of art, and make sure those lycra clad heroes don’t get in everyone’s way barging across intersections like they have a right to be on the public road, the public menace. so i won’t say nice things until the darkness of the new asphalt is lightened about three shades of grey and the whol;e road moved about three inches to the left where the sunset won’t interfere with my capacity to preen in the rear view mirrow when i drive home, talking to my cousin on the mobile, drunk. oh, and i saw a duck. who was overcharged for his pizza last week.

did i miss anything, spectra?

I don’t suppose anyone has thought through the implications of the widening of Barry Drive, the duplication of the GDE (which will not extend from where it joins Parkes Way) which will have the net effect of getting everyone to the known bottlenecks about 15 seconds faster and thus increase the delays by at least more than 15 minutes. I would guess that delays only increased with the GDE – rather than ameliorated them. Maybe “save the ridge” had a point after all.

Spectra said :

This isn’t a site for complementing the government or its employees or contractors.

Fixed.

This isn’t an “instance” for complementing the government or its employees or contractors.

Hmmm, seen that second GDE bridge over Belconnen Way? It has had a LOT of scaffolding for a very long time, with no real sign of progress.

I think they started all the roadworks a couple of months ago because of the same reason that every government department started spending up big.
End of Financial Year.

Gungahlin Al11:40 am 07 Jul 10

Flemington Rd (partial) duplication is coming together fairly well. Will be sweet when done – until we get to the bottleneck at each end…

Interestingly, had to go down to Woden 4 days running recently. And even with the crawls at each merge point, it was still faster to get to the centre of Woden than centre of Civic on Northbourne. GDE will be a great run when 4 lanes all the way. Damn shame John Hargreaves knew so much better and wouldn’t listen to anyone – people could have been enjoying that for two years already.

Mothy said :

Prob worth a pat on the back too for the near completion of the citybound Barry Drive works – with lines now marked can’t be far off the bus/bike lanes being open and the speed restrictions coming off the other two lanes.

Worth a pat on the back ?? I doubt it. I’m going to complain ! This should have been finished weeks ago.

Everytime I would drive down Barry Drive to work, I would have a joke with my partner as to how many people were actually working that morning. It usually totaled about 2-3 with the rest standing or sitting around drinking coffee or having ciggies etc. (And yes they are entitled to a smoko break but not at 8am in the morning) I have also traveled down that stretch of road at various other times of the day to see the exact same thing.. My tax money REAL hard at work.

Im all for improving the roads… Just hurry up !!!

thanks Mothy, forgot to mention Barry Drive works! 😉

Prob worth a pat on the back too for the near completion of the citybound Barry Drive works – with lines now marked can’t be far off the bus/bike lanes being open and the speed restrictions coming off the other two lanes.

Must have only opened that lane this week.

North to South Through Glenloch last Friday took 45 minutes (no, not the whole GDE, just Caswell Drive (backed up to Bandjalong Cres overpass) to level with the Zoo on the Parkway.

There were 2 Form 1 Lanes – one for the Tuggeranong/Woden Bound traffic off William Hovell, which then fed into the one for the Southbound traffic off Parkes Way.

Is the extra lane solving both problems?

Colour me impressed and well done to the Road Workers who have been working their guts out in this cold winter that we are having in the ACT, credit where credit is due.

No, no, no. You’re doing it all wrong. This isn’t a site for complementing the government or its employees or contractors. You’ve got to nitpick, complain and grumble about every bit of incompetence, perceived or otherwise (see grump’s post above). Now go away, read some other threads and don’t come back and post again until you can find at least 10 things wrong with the work done thus far, the people doing it, or the colour of the asphalt or concrete. Bonus points are awarded for mentioning cyclists, public art, Charnwood, Kambah, or giving a minister an amusing title like Comrade Stanhopeless.

😉

icantbelieveitsnotbutter9:45 am 07 Jul 10

A cunning plan by the ACT Government… Start them all now, piss everyone off for a year or so and then have all the roadworks complete just in time for an election?

colour me impressed if they hired more than 2 men and an arthritic dog to do all the work and stopped shuffling the said 3 between jobs for the illusion of progress.

Has any roadwork job in Canberra actually got a dedicated crew on it – they only seem to be there irregularly – eg, outside the ABS down Benjamin Way, Braybrooke Street, ginnederra Drive, GDE, top of Kings Avenue on Parkes Way etc etc etc. 🙁

Well I would like to say a big thankyou to the road workers who signal to the stupid speeding drivers to slow down through the road work areas.

Not that it usually has any effect on these drivers

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