13 March 2012

Did the RTA forget about Canberra Day?

13 March 2012 | longshanks

I was driving home from Sydney yesterday, cruising along the Hume at about 113 km/h, when I hit a huge tailback about 12 or so kms south of the Sutton Forest service centre.

The next 15km (yep, measured it) took almost 2 hours (yep, timed it). There was a lane closed for repairs a little way south of the Marulan service centre, and with all the trucks, and extra traffic generated by people heading home after the long weekend, a huge jam was inevitable.

Anyway, according to the RTA Live Traffic NSW website, these works were scheduled to start yesterday. Seems a bit dumb to schedule major roadworks on the Canberra-bound lane on the Monday of a Canberra long weekend. A case of “didn’t know” or “didn’t care”?

Anyone else get stuck?

Oh and by the way, no, my time is not overly precious, and yes, I got over it, and yes, I’m grateful that I live in a country with (on the whole) decent roads, and no, there were no cyclists involved, and yes, I realise that roadworks are necessary, etc. etc.

[Photo: Paddy’s River Southbound 12 Mar 4pm, by Peter]

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Nifty8:33 pm 14 Mar 12

Reprobate said :

I’m calling conspiracy. There were also lots of roadworks (road base down to mud and loose gravel) on the Kings Highway between the Clyde and Braidwood yesterday. Bloody New South Welshmen, jealous of our extra public holiday…

Mind you if you think the Hume and Kings highways are bad, Brown Mountain is closed due to rockfalls for the next few month and the detour road to Bega/Merimbula via Bombala is currently sub-Third World with potholes spread across full lanes due to the recent rains. Take care!

Macquarie Pass (Wollongong – Moss Vale) was also closed for roadworks between (I think) 9am and 3pm. However, I was only delayed 10 minutes there compared with 1 hour 20 minutes getting through Marulan. I considered turning back and taking Carrick Rd but decided that it mightn’t be a good idea given the misty conditions. There’s certainly no way it would have coped with all the traffic on the highway.

Sandman8:32 pm 14 Mar 12

MrPC said :

It wasn’t just ACT residents that got caught up in the chaos. I expect better than that from my state government, and I will be holding my local member to account if an unsatisfactory or untimely response is received from his office.

You be sure to let us know if your member fails to offer you taxpayer funded counselling sessions for your one-time traumatic experience, an experience that M5/Hume drivers encounter every time a pigeon takes a dump from the Narellan Road overpass.

If that’s the biggest issue you can think of that should be taking up parliamentary time then I suggest you build a bridge and get over it (make sure bridge construction doesn’t interfere with anyones time off work though).

HenryBG6:10 pm 14 Mar 12

MrPC said :

The increase in traffic is eminently predictable by anybody that owns a calendar.
It wasn’t just ACT residents that got caught up in the chaos. I expect better than that from my state government, and I will be holding my local member to account if an unsatisfactory or untimely response is received from his office.

A very sensible post.
It doesn’t matter where the cars originate or destinate – traffic is predictable and good management says to avoid periods of high traffic when planning roadworks.
I’d say somebody at RTA should get their arse kicked.

On another note – how about we Canberrans boycott NSW to punish them for doing this to us?

MrPC11:38 pm 13 Mar 12

2legdrive said :

H’mm not sure if anyone noticed but the public holiday was called “Canberra Day”
Not “Drive to Sydney for a long weekend Day”

Irrelevant. The increase in traffic is eminently predictable by anybody that owns a calendar. Clearly this is too much for NSW public servants. Works that aren’t time critical can be done just about any other day of the year.

The number of trucks and NSW plates caught up in the mess was extreme. I wonder how the 1-2 hour delays impacted on truck drivers log book hours. How many trucks failed to reach their destination yesterday before their drivers had to go off on the clock? How many stores and producers transportation arrangements were ruined, in NSW and elsewhere? All this because of the utter incompetence of the NSW RMS.

2legdrive said :

Maybe if you had all stayed in Canberra and enjoyed the 99th birthday locally this would not have been an issue?

Stayed in Canberra? I don’t even live in Canberra, I just happen to work there. I live in NSW.

It wasn’t just ACT residents that got caught up in the chaos. I expect better than that from my state government, and I will be holding my local member to account if an unsatisfactory or untimely response is received from his office.

MrPC11:37 pm 13 Mar 12

2legdrive said :

H’mm not sure if anyone noticed but the public holiday was called “Canberra Day”
Not “Drive to Sydney for a long weekend Day”

Maybe if you had all stayed in Canberra and enjoyed the 99th birthday locally this would not have been an issue?

Stayed in Canberra? I don’t even live in Canberra, I just happen to work there. I live in NSW.

yellowsnow11:17 pm 13 Mar 12

2legdrive said :

H’mm not sure if anyone noticed but the public holiday was called “Canberra Day”
Not “Drive to Sydney for a long weekend Day”

Maybe if you had all stayed in Canberra and enjoyed the 99th birthday locally this would not have been an issue?

fair go ned10:48 pm 13 Mar 12

First world problem?

loopol10:35 pm 13 Mar 12

Yes I was also stuck.Left Syd at 1.30pm and would normally arrive in Canberra 4.30pm. Didn’t make it home until 6pm. Never noticed how much litter there is beside the highway until crawling along yesterday. It’s really quite disgusting how filthy people are.

memmum219:37 pm 13 Mar 12

We were stuck in this traffic jam for over an hour as we headed back to Canberra on Monday afternoon returning from a weekend in Sydney. We thought the worst – it must be a terrible accident to cause such a long delay. We eventually realised it was two lanes merging to one at Marulan due to the left lane being dug up in a number of places with not one workman in sight repairing the damage. With such a huge amount of traffic coming through why didn’t the police come to assist and possibly open a side lane. What a waste of time and petrol for thousands of motorists – all of us ACT, NSW & VIC plates!

2legdrive9:12 pm 13 Mar 12

H’mm not sure if anyone noticed but the public holiday was called “Canberra Day”
Not “Drive to Sydney for a long weekend Day”

Maybe if you had all stayed in Canberra and enjoyed the 99th birthday locally this would not have been an issue?

MrPC5:44 pm 13 Mar 12

I got stuck there too. I left Sutton Forest servo at 15:08 according to my receipt, and pulled in for fuel at Goulburn at 17:03. That’s 1h55m for a trip that should be no more than 40 minutes.

Fortunately I’m a NSW resident that happens to work in the ACT, so I called my State MP (John Barilaro)’s office this afternoon for a Please Explain. I’d suggest that any other NSW residents that are outraged by this sort of incompetence do the same.

When I passed Marulan I switched the radio from 702 to 666

On 702 circa 3:30-4:00pm they kept reporting “40km/h limit through Marulan” which eventually changed to “15km queue, 30 to 60 minute delays” (which was BS – the queues were well over an hour long before then). Their traffic report person kept getting reports from RMS but I don’t believe the guy on 702 took them seriously for some time.

On 666 circa 4:45pm the reports were similar but then changed to “It was 15km but it’s eased to 10km” when they had some numptie from NSW RMS interviewed by Louise from the 666 Drive program, who kept saying the maintenance was essential, while dodging the point that Louise was trying to make, in that it was a public holiday monday for people whose jobs are located in the ACT (whether or not they are NSW or ACT residents) and that it’s pretty stupid to conduct planned works when travel demand is at its highest. If the work was so essential, then why were there no workers there at 4:45pm when I eventually made it past the works site?

I understand that it’d have only gotten worse as the night dragged on. The light fog was bad enough at 4:30-4:45pm but add in the lower light, and a higher number of people driving back (most wouldn’t leave Sydney until just before Peak Hour), it probably would have been backed up all the way to Berrima two hours later. Throw in cars overheating and breaking down (I passed several of those), road rage, and the inevitable fender bender (not sure if there were any, but there had to have been), I just can’t imagine how it would have gotten any better before ~9pm.

What has me interested is why did they feel the need to only use the right lane when works weren’t actually taking place? The hard shoulder wasn’t dug up. They could have put half a kilometre of lane dividers up between the left and right lanes in advance of the work, and then diverted the left lane around the works via the hard shoulder. Just a thought.

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