Federales stump up $144 million for the Majura Parkway

Grrrr said :

Innabanya and Majura Pines are getting the road straight through them, instead of duplication of the existing road. There’s going to be some unhappy Girl Guides (and everyone else they rent the grounds out to) and MTB’ers next year.

AAAAAARRRRGHHHHHHHHH – yet another recreational facility lost to the petrol-guzzler monsters and the lard-arses that drive them. As if losing Sparrow Hill to the Kings Hwy sprawl wasn’t enough. So much to Canberra being the nation’s prime MTBing “mecca” – more like a slum as time and “progress” go on. Next they’ll be charging us all fees for access to the Mt Stromlo trails, as if we haven’t paid enough for them via taxes. Just can’t believe it.

Won’t be long before new MTB trails spring up in the Canberra Nature Park on Ainslie & Majura, I would guess. Works OK for Bruce Ridge. I wonder how much of a fight FOMM and FOMA will put up.

Bluey said :

The Frots said :

Deckard said :

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

I think one of the guys working on it has been sick so the other two are having to pick up the slack.

LOL – and probably true sadly!

If i wasnt laughing now I’d be crying. Sick to death of crawling along there every day and seeing 4 blokes working on a 4×4 metre section of drainage or something while the road surface looks untouched.

In another example of this, they recently had to pour 3 small concrete sections (each about 1 metre long) at the Glenloch section to join where different concrete road divider types met (they seem to have used two different types of divider).
So, did they do the formwork for all 3 at the same time and pour them from one cement truck, which would have taken about 5 days to construct, pour and remove?
Nope. They made the formwork for one (about $200 of formwork wood) and poured it, then reused that formwork for the next, then reused it again for the last section – in a process that took about 3 weeks to complete. All to apparently save about $400 of formwork wood that they probably had lying around elsewhere anyway! Amazing.
Look, I really feel for them out in this weather, but surely with it being so cold and bitter they’d want to get it done ASAP?
They’ve done some good work in there but overall, I can’t imagine using the GDE on my CV if I was a worker there….

The ACT government is appalling at running roadwork projects. Remember the roads being fixed around the Airport? The bit the Airport was in charge of doing, the bit right out the front and that high bridge-thing, were completed in no time. The bit the ACT government was in charge of, the Pialligo/Fairbairn section, took years longer. they used a mob called Guideline and the work was sloooow, and didn’t need to be.

I hate to say anything nice about the Snow empire, but if they put them in charge of doing the new Majura Rd, it would be done in record time and on budget.

switch said :

yellowsnow said :

Wonder how close to the mark I’ll be?

Frighteningly.

Can I borrow your Crystal ball? Yours seems to be working.

yellowsnow said :

Wonder how close to the mark I’ll be?

Frighteningly.

I predict that three months after parkway contruction begins they’ll uncover a huge asbestos dump and the project will be halted.

They’ll be huge uproar when it is found that the asbestos from Molonglo was being trucked and deposited by unscrupulous contractors at Majura Pines. The Chief Minister will say ‘But no one told me anything! No one told me where the Molonglo absestos was going!’ and, as usual, no one will lose their job.

The asbestos will be shipped out and deposited at another future housing development area. The Majura Parkway budget will blow out by x3, Federal Govt will create an economy wide asbestos tax to compensate everyone and cover budget over-runs, and the Majura Parkway will finally be completed in 2025, only for it to be discovered that the road designers didn’t put in enough lanes to handle the traffic. And so as soon as it was finished the road was dug up again to add more lanes. To cover costs, the ACT local government (it had been demoted to local government status in 2024 after Chief Minister Barr ‘accidentally’ closed down all the primary schools in the territory to fill a budget black hole so as to be able to fund more statues and an even bigger uber-arboretum) sold off the land in Majura Vally for housing development. Traffic increased yet more … more lanes needed … etc etc etc

Wonder how close to the mark I’ll be?

The Frots said :

Deckard said :

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

I think one of the guys working on it has been sick so the other two are having to pick up the slack.

LOL – and probably true sadly!

If i wasnt laughing now I’d be crying. Sick to death of crawling along there every day and seeing 4 blokes working on a 4×4 metre section of drainage or something while the road surface looks untouched.

Deckard said :

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

I think one of the guys working on it has been sick so the other two are having to pick up the slack.

LOL – and probably true sadly!

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

I think one of the guys working on it has been sick so the other two are having to pick up the slack.

LSWCHP said :

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

The reason doesn’t matter. It will never be finished, and like Sisyphus, Canberrans are doomed to fruitlessly and agonisingly crawl their way along it into eternity. Don’t ask why, just merge into the line of traffic, and shuffle along.

Every time I lurch along that godforsaken piece of tar, I’m reminded of one of my favourite pieces of Shakespeare, from Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5 :

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.

I’m pretty sure Shakespeare wasn’t thinking of the GDE when he wrote those fantastic words, but as is so often the case, his words are remarkably applicable to many unforeseen aspects of the human condition, and the general tone of the passage aptly fits my mood whenever I’m on the GDE.

Hahaha! So true!!
I remember when they first started working on it it was so strange. You’d ride your bike up out of the tunnel near the lake, when heading towards Belco and all you could basically see were open fields, with no buldings or other man-made stuff. Then, as you got higher on the path, hundreds of cars just sitting there would appear in your view. It was so surreal! Gridlocked cars in the middle of a field!
But, after a few years of it, that novelty wore off…….
Now I kind of think of it as some sort of ‘Truman show’ style experiment, where ‘they’ see how long they can make people wait in a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure somewhere, someone is writing a PhD about it…..

LlamaFrog said :

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

The reason doesn’t matter. It will never be finished, and like Sisyphus, Canberrans are doomed to fruitlessly and agonisingly crawl their way along it into eternity. Don’t ask why, just merge into the line of traffic, and shuffle along.

Every time I lurch along that godforsaken piece of tar, I’m reminded of one of my favourite pieces of Shakespeare, from Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5 :

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.

I’m pretty sure Shakespeare wasn’t thinking of the GDE when he wrote those fantastic words, but as is so often the case, his words are remarkably applicable to many unforeseen aspects of the human condition, and the general tone of the passage aptly fits my mood whenever I’m on the GDE.

Is there any reason that the GDE hasn’t been finished? nothing ever seems to be happening.

What about hooking the GDE up with the Federal Hwy? It would remove a lot of the congestion around the Barton Hwy/Fed Hwy intersection.

Grrrr said :

Innabanya and Majura Pines are getting the road straight through them, instead of duplication of the existing road. There’s going to be some unhappy Girl Guides (and everyone else they rent the grounds out to) and MTB’ers next year.

There are really old slab huts on that property. They should have a heritage listing slapped on them.

BicycleCanberra said :

Wasn’t the the GDE supposed to improve the North South connection? funny thing happen when you build more and more roads ,you just get more and more traffic, and to solve the traffic congestion we just continue to build more roads or add another lane. The never ending story in reality

Strangely enough, when you have an are like Gungahlin that is growing by the day you also get more and more traffic which has to be accommodated somewhere. Are you suggesting we should just forget about Gungahlin and not worry about building any infrastructure for them?

As for the GDE it is (or will be once it is finished) a good road for linking the southern suburbs of Gungahlin to Woden, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong etc. The Majura Parkway however will be good for suburbs north of the town centre to get to the Parl triange, Fyshwick, QBN etc. So Gungahlin needs both, just like all other Canberra ‘towns’ have at least 2 major routes out.

Didn’t they just spend something like 12-18 months redoing the existing road 2 or 3 years back? I agree that the road needs upgrading, but why the hell didn’t they commence the upgrade then? Or better yet, duplicate the existing road? That would have at least caused less delays and possibly been cheaper.

Innabanya and Majura Pines are getting the road straight through them, instead of duplication of the existing road. There’s going to be some unhappy Girl Guides (and everyone else they rent the grounds out to) and MTB’ers next year.

Should be a good outcome (eventually).

UseMyMoney said :

When are they goign to put the money into the VFT to sydney, upgrade the airport handle 24 hour long haul planes and truely have a city that is not a joke compared to other developed nations.

Yes, we need lots of congestion and 24-hour noise to be like proper cities. I can’t wait.

Gungahlin Al said :

Are you trying to say the whole road is being moved west so there’s enough room left to the east of the road for a VFT corridor straight past the airport, so they can further their second-Sydney-airport dream?

I’d forgotten about Snow’s VFT dream… it’s integrated into his master plan and yes, it is meant to come down on the airport’s western boundary. He’s planning some kind of giant airport hotel to mesh with it, too.

It’s just what they’re planning is a brand new giant road, it’ll be over closer to the mountains, and rip up some good farms. There’s already half the road there in the form of the current Majura Rd, it really is a shame they can’t just make it a twin and leave it at that.

Cool. Monash Drive definitely not happening, and fewer Gungahlin peasants will be doing the rat-run through four of Ainslie’s streets …

UseMyMoney said :

When are they goign to put the money into the VFT to sydney, upgrade the airport handle 24 hour long haul planes and truely have a city that is not a joke compared to other developed nations.

Never. Too expensive and too many vested interests in the status quo.

So they are projecting a total cost of $288 million and 4 years to complete.

If the government has the same success with this road as they did with the GDE (i.e. actual costs were 4x the estimate, and the time frame was about 3x longer than planned), then this road should be completed in 2024 at a cost of $1.1 billion.

If you use multiples from the GDE that is, who knows, they might do better.

When are they goign to put the money into the VFT to sydney, upgrade the airport handle 24 hour long haul planes and truely have a city that is not a joke compared to other developed nations.

Well done on getting the funds for the road. Hope also that the illegal bus workshop gets moved in the process.

Rollersk8r said :

The GDE may well improve North-South traffic if they ever finish it. Not sure what your issue is – Majura road is not currently serviced by ACTION and would be one the ACT’s least safe roads to ride on. Building a major new road would at least open up both possibilities. I cycle to work most days and still want better roads whether I’m using my bike, the bus or my car.[/quote>

‘You can have a city that is friendly to cars or a city friendly to people, you cannot have both.’
ACTION buses are not supposed to use this road .Public transport should use dedicated roads,lanes or tracks along the major transport corridors to the town centres. We haven’t managed to do that for some 35 years of Canberra transport planning!
Don’t expect any good cycle facilities on this road either, just a shoulder with no separation from high speed high volume traffic.

Community campaign ? if you call the labor party a community i guess.

BicycleCanberra said :

Rollersk8r said :

Only on the RiotACT could people find ways to complain about this. Heaven forbid we actually build something that will vastly improve both North and South access to the ACT, AND goes past the airport, whilst bypassing and reducing pressure on roads like Northbourne and Limestone Ave etc…

Wasn’t the the GDE supposed to improve the North South connection? funny thing happen when you build more and more roads ,you just get more and more traffic, and to solve the traffic congestion we just continue to build more roads or add another lane. The never ending story in reality

The GDE may well improve North-South traffic if they ever finish it. Not sure what your issue is – Majura road is not currently serviced by ACTION and would be one the ACT’s least safe roads to ride on. Building a major new road would at least open up both possibilities. I cycle to work most days and still want better roads whether I’m using my bike, the bus or my car.

Four years?!

A smart, sensible planning decision for the ACT.
No wonder the Greens were against it.

I’m still looking for the catch.. I know its in there some where, I just know it is…..

I believe its a new road because there are too many facilities on majura road, so the locals and their traffic are seperate to those passing through. Makes complete sense to me. If only they didn’t build the jail etc on the Monaro….

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

The Frots said :

Excellent now wait for the inevitable tolls. What are the chances of a toll being introduced on the GDE? Hmmm?

Haha I misread this as “trolls”. Which is true too.

Well, they [i]are[/i] building seven bridges.

EvanJames said :

I still can’t see why they can’t just build a duplicate road next to the current one, then turn the current road into one half of the new road, rather than building this projected massive new thing ploughing through prime farming land.

I wonder if the Airport had a hand in it? If the road was moved way over to the west, they could make the runway longer. and take Jumbos and big freight planes.

Are you trying to say the whole road is being moved west so there’s enough room left to the east of the road for a VFT corridor straight past the airport, so they can further their second-Sydney-airport dream?

Dunno where you’d get that sort of crazy idea.

A lot of people in Gungahlin and NSW over the border and who have to work out at BBP will be very happy with this news, even if it means yet more construction disruptions for them.

And yes it will negate some of the traffic growth that was threatening to make Northbourne completely unviable for morning commutes.

But the Flemington/Northbourne problem is the elephant in the corner. Light rail or Monash Drive – it’s as simple as that.

Rollersk8r said :

Only on the RiotACT could people find ways to complain about this. Heaven forbid we actually build something that will vastly improve both North and South access to the ACT, AND goes past the airport, whilst bypassing and reducing pressure on roads like Northbourne and Limestone Ave etc…

Wasn’t the the GDE supposed to improve the North South connection? funny thing happen when you build more and more roads ,you just get more and more traffic, and to solve the traffic congestion we just continue to build more roads or add another lane. The never ending story in reality

The Frots said :

Excellent now wait for the inevitable tolls. What are the chances of a toll being introduced on the GDE? Hmmm?

Haha I misread this as “trolls”. Which is true too.

Only on the RiotACT could people find ways to complain about this. Heaven forbid we actually build something that will vastly improve both North and South access to the ACT, AND goes past the airport, whilst bypassing and reducing pressure on roads like Northbourne and Limestone Ave etc…

Excellent now wait for the inevitable tolls. What are the chances of a toll being introduced on the GDE? Hmmm?

I expect they’ve done a deal regarding the tolls, which will be implemented but Families get an exemption (or compensation).

I still can’t see why they can’t just build a duplicate road next to the current one, then turn the current road into one half of the new road, rather than building this projected massive new thing ploughing through prime farming land.

I wonder if the Airport had a hand in it? If the road was moved way over to the west, they could make the runway longer. and take Jumbos and big freight planes.

The ‘sustainable transport plan’,no the ‘sustainable transport action plan’,no the ‘Transport for Canberra’ plan is now officially dead and buried. Canberrans will be forced to use theirs cars for a lot longer now until oil prices significantly rise again, but then we will be forced to buy electric cars I guess.

Amazing how much money the Feds are prepared to put into building roads to the airport. It should be called the Pollie Exit Expressway.