10 August 2011

Cages go up on the Kent Street bridge

| johnboy
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TAMS have sad news that as part of the program to protect the community from its own worst elements the caging of the Kent Street bridge over Adelaide Avenue has begun.

“The ACT Government has invested $3.6 million to install the screens at high-risk locations across the ACT aiming to eliminate the risk of serious injury to motorists and pedestrians,” Tony Gill, Director of Roads ACT, announced today.

“In conjunction with Kent Street, safety screens will also be installed on the Chandler Street, Belconnen bridge in the coming months.

“The provision of a screen at the Kent Street overpass was identified after an assessment of high risk locations across the ACT and forms part of a rolling program of installing screens in recent years.

“With Adelaide Avenue carrying more than 40,000 vehicles per day, the Kent Street bridge has been identified as a priority site where there is a need to more closely manage public risk.”

Mr Gill said installation of the bridge safety screens will be undertaken over the next 12 weeks and have been designed to meet road transport safety, traffic operation and urban design objectives.

“Screens have already been installed on pedestrian bridges over Erindale Drive, Ginninderra Drive, Belconnen Way, Yamba Drive and Isabella Drive as well as vehicle bridges crossing Carruthers Street and Cotter Road.

“Temporary traffic management is in place on Kent Street and Adelaide Avenue and will not affect traffic during peak times to minimise inconvenience to drivers and pedestrians.

kent street overpass

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they’ve been there for at least the last couple of weeks. They’re not just new.

Ah, ok. Depends how long they’ve been there, I’ve been avoiding Kent St itself since the end of last week due to the ramp closure. It’s also possible that they just faded into the general milieu of roadworks signs on my morning commute. Either way, that answers my question so thanks for the info.

no – normal signs bunged in on star pickets – between the hopetoun circuit on ramp and the kent street off ramp southbound, and before the bridge northbound (in the vicinity of the north end of the horse paddock).

Erg0 was probably focusing on the road, i like that.

carnardly said :

there are signs on both the northbound and southbound sides of Kent Street advising of stormwater drain work.

Maybe you missed them.

Do you mean the electronic signs? They’ve been there for a couple of weeks, advising that roadwork would be occuring from the 1st to the 16th, but I didn’t notice anything specific about stormwater drains. Perhaps they’ve updated the text since I last read them.

there are signs on both the northbound and southbound sides of Kent Street advising of stormwater drain work. Maybe you missed them.

Erg0 said :

So, does anyone know what exactly is going on around the Kent St bridge at the moment? The traffic barriers on the south side came and went with no cages having been installed, and now they’re working on the Adelaide Ave on-ramp and the road below. I assume they must be doing something else at the same time, but I don’t see it mentioned in the press release above.

I am pretty sure they are making upgrades to the storm water drains on Adelaide Ave.

So, does anyone know what exactly is going on around the Kent St bridge at the moment? The traffic barriers on the south side came and went with no cages having been installed, and now they’re working on the Adelaide Ave on-ramp and the road below. I assume they must be doing something else at the same time, but I don’t see it mentioned in the press release above.

They’re not pretty but, unfortunately, necessary. I can’t see the alternative.

For those that use this area, as well as the problems for cyclists identified earlier, be careful if you are turning right off Adelaide Avenue on to the bridge. The refuge lane in the middle is no longer available for that purpose as all through traffic along Kent St has been rerouted into that lane. I didn’t find out until I was half way across the intersection and nearly caused a pile up.

Well, maybe its because kids at Deakin High wander back and forth over carrruthers street.

bitzermaloney4:17 pm 10 Aug 11

carnardly said :

you didn’t notice they did the same on the Curtin/Hughes overpass? lol

Obviously that’s because there the Yarralumla/Deakin community is so much more devious.

Skidbladnir said :

Funny thing, putting up cages simply moves the problem along, and not only does caging _every_ bridge cost a bundle, offenders will just find something other vector for destructive urges.

Heads they win, tails we lose?

I get where you are comming from, but we need to do what we can to limit the damage they can cause to people.

How about Heads we kill’em, Tails, we kill’em!

Funny thing, putting up cages simply moves the problem along, and not only does caging _every_ bridge cost a bundle, offenders will just find something other vector for destructive urges.

Heads they win, tails we lose?

Keijidosha said :

It would be interesting to know how they determine “high-risk”, because the pedestrian overpass on Ginninderra Drive at Lyneham was one of the first bridges to be caged,

I cant speak for the designers/government but you’ll probably find they prioritise based on the bridges vicinity to residential areas, and areas that are crime sports for younger offenders.

Parkes way is really only pedestrian commuters, and there aren’t many residences near them.

Mr Gillespie said :

They just install the eyesores no matter how ugly or imposing they appear on the landscape. And to hell with the misuse of public monies, all for the sake of faceless cowards that throw rocks, which also cost money to keep alive and feed them while they contribute NOTHING positive to the society that feeds them.

Ahh Mr.G, Hello!

It’s a bit hard to work out where to go with your argument, for even if they get rid of those creitins, others will follow, and somone will get hurt before the next wave of creitens goes.

On the other hand, Looking at the second half of your comment, I have no issue with revoking rock droppers right to breath.

“The ACT Government has invested $3.6 million to install the screens at high-risk locations across the ACT aiming to eliminate the risk of serious injury to motorists and pedestrians,” Tony Gill, Director of Roads ACT, announced today.”

It would be interesting to know how they determine “high-risk”, because the pedestrian overpass on Ginninderra Drive at Lyneham was one of the first bridges to be caged, yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than a handful of pedestrians/cyclists using it in the years I have lived in Canberra.

I’m unsure how this could be seen as a high-risk site when both pedestrian bridges on Parkes Way are still yet to be caged. In fairness it could be that these bridges are controlled by the NCA, in which case it makes sense that nothing has been done to cage them.

Mr Gillespie said :

They just install the eyesores no matter how ugly or imposing they appear on the landscape

Its pretty difficult to make a steel fence look good. The fact of the matter is, unless there are genuine punishments for criminal damage that apply to both adults and kids, nothing will stop these sort of things from happening. I say relocate the fence to northborne to built a large cage. 24 hrs in the public cell would set a lot of people straight.

Mr Gillespie3:21 pm 10 Aug 11

They just install the eyesores no matter how ugly or imposing they appear on the landscape. And to hell with the misuse of public monies, all for the sake of faceless cowards that throw rocks, which also cost money to keep alive and feed them while they contribute NOTHING positive to the society that feeds them.

you didn’t notice they did the same on the Curtin/Hughes overpass? lol

It probably says something about the ubiquity of roadwarks in Canberra that I’ve driven through there every day for the last couple of weeks and never really wondered what they were actually doing.

colourful sydney racing identity2:58 pm 10 Aug 11

johnboy said :

It’s sad that we need them.

this

And once again, huge amounts of money are spent to deal with the activities of badly-raised criminal element. I guess they feel pretty powerful that they can cause this to happen.

It’s sad that we need them.

Three weeks too late…………they have been working there for ages. For anyone who cycles this route be careful as they have diverted the cycle path onto the road. It is all barracaded in nicely but the mount & dismount of the gutter is a couple of pieces of dodgy concrete & sandbags.

OK on the MTB but is a bit tricky on the roadie especially with panniers.

How is it sad news that steps are being taken to protect people from possible injury and death?

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