12 May 2016

Funds earmarked to complete Cotter Road duplication

| Michael Reid
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The ACT government announced on Thursday it has earmarked funds from its 2016/17 budget to complete the Cotter Road duplication.

The budget will commit $28.9m to the project in 2016/17 and over the forward estimates, with the aim to complete the project in 2018/19.

The project has been part of the Government’s forward planning on transport infrastructure upgrades, having been designed and costed in previous budgets.

Some upgrades to the road have already been completed, including signalling at the Lady Denman Drive and Cotter Road intersection.

The ACT government claims the upgrade will help service the thousands of new residents expected in the Molonglo Valley and Weston Creek over the coming decade and improve travel times for motorists, buses and cyclists.

Transport minister Meegan Fitzharris said: “Cotter Road is an important road connecting the growing Weston Creek and Molonglo Valley region to the rest of our beautiful city.

“The ACT government is committed to improving our transport network, no matter where you live. Whether this means improving the bus services, investing in new modes, or upgrading our roads and cycle paths.”

 

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MarkE said :

rommeldog56 said :

Mordd said :

What will this duplication achieve except to get everyone to the bottleneck onto Adelaide Ave quicker?

True and unless I am mistaken it is already duplicated to the Tuggeranong Parkway which is the main north south arterial road in Canberra anyway.

With the addition of all the folks in Wright, Coombs and Molonglo trying to get to the City, this road will become even more of a blockade than it is now. They won’t bother to go the way of William Hovell Drive as it’d add more distance to the journey and is already gridlocked at peak hour. On top of that it is only single lane and you’d be turning right into a road without the aid of traffic lights. The appeal of living nearer to the City in this new location will be lost in the chaos of dumping extra traffic volume onto an already jam packed road.
There also doesn’t appear to be any [except one single early morning] services to the City from the new suburbs, without detouring all the way back to Cooleman Court. Guess the new residents are expected to drive to work along with everyone else.

… Or you could ride a bike to work?

wildturkeycanoe8:39 pm 15 May 16

rommeldog56 said :

Mordd said :

What will this duplication achieve except to get everyone to the bottleneck onto Adelaide Ave quicker?

True and unless I am mistaken it is already duplicated to the Tuggeranong Parkway which is the main north south arterial road in Canberra anyway.

With the addition of all the folks in Wright, Coombs and Molonglo trying to get to the City, this road will become even more of a blockade than it is now. They won’t bother to go the way of William Hovell Drive as it’d add more distance to the journey and is already gridlocked at peak hour. On top of that it is only single lane and you’d be turning right into a road without the aid of traffic lights. The appeal of living nearer to the City in this new location will be lost in the chaos of dumping extra traffic volume onto an already jam packed road.
There also doesn’t appear to be any [except one single early morning] services to the City from the new suburbs, without detouring all the way back to Cooleman Court. Guess the new residents are expected to drive to work along with everyone else.

rommeldog56 said :

Mordd said :

What will this duplication achieve except to get everyone to the bottleneck onto Adelaide Ave quicker?

True and unless I am mistaken it is already duplicated to the Tuggeranong Parkway which is the main north south arterial road in Canberra anyway.

The issue is that they did 80%, it would seem they left the rest to make it an election promise and to look like they are doing more. Who knows if it was planned like that either way there is something Marjory wrong with doing all these half measures.

At least the feds chipped in for upgraded lighting on the Tuggeranong parkway. Its been done in quiet periods with minimal disruption to traffic and done quickly and all at the same time.

Compare that to other projects we have years of disruption.

John Hargreaves said :

Lurker2913 said :

Neil34 said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects.

What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

She built a futsal slab which now is central to the coolest, hippest container village on the prairie.
Andrew Barr is claiming it as his own initiative but we all know it was Carnell’s vision.
It’s also a bit hard for the Liberals to do any infrastructure projects when they have been in opposition continually for 13 years (or is that 14,JC?)

How about 14 1/2. Will be 15 years in November. Unless the Liebrals can get their act together.

Thanks, JC.
It’s great to have a fact-checker in residence!
PS You need a spell-checker.

Mordd said :

What will this duplication achieve except to get everyone to the bottleneck onto Adelaide Ave quicker?

True and unless I am mistaken it is already duplicated to the Tuggeranong Parkway which is the main north south arterial road in Canberra anyway.

Lurker2913 said :

Neil34 said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects.

What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

She built a futsal slab which now is central to the coolest, hippest container village on the prairie.
Andrew Barr is claiming it as his own initiative but we all know it was Carnell’s vision.
It’s also a bit hard for the Liberals to do any infrastructure projects when they have been in opposition continually for 13 years (or is that 14,JC?)

How about 14 1/2. Will be 15 years in November. Unless the Liebrals can get their act together.

wildturkeycanoe7:19 am 15 May 16

What will this duplication achieve except to get everyone to the bottleneck onto Adelaide Ave quicker?

Based on the traffic volume on the newly-opened duplicated Cotter Road all the way from Weston Creek to the obviously-inadequate single lane entry to Adelaide Ave last week, and looking at the banked-up traffic struggling to find alternative routes to the triangle in the morning, the duplication has achieved little. Planning triumph?

Mordd said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

The road should of been done after the bushfire when they decided on planning that area at the beginning .Not after you move and extra 10,000 people to the area with a road that can no longer handle the traffic.

It’s been done in such small sections the grader driver spends more time turning his machine around than actual grading.

Molonglo doesn’t have 10,000 people. That is a projection for around 2020.

Current population is about half that.

Maybe should have done something earlier, but then again there was plenty of other roads that needed and got funding and certainly not in 2003, 8 years later in 2011 the population on census night was 27.

Neil34 said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects.

What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

Two things come to mind. Upgraded Bruce Stadium, of course buggered that royally but having grass from North QLD and wondering why it didn’t go green here, so tried to paint it, before coming to senses and getting a local cool climate grass.

And she was responsible for blowing up the old Canberra hospital and making a spectacle of it. We of course know the result and the human toll that one caused.

So interesting record.

Neil34 said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects.

What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

She built a futsal slab which now is central to the coolest, hippest container village on the prairie.
Andrew Barr is claiming it as his own initiative but we all know it was Carnell’s vision.
It’s also a bit hard for the Liberals to do any infrastructure projects when they have been in opposition continually for 13 years (or is that 14,JC?)

Neil34 said :

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects.

What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

Wait up a second, my popcorn is still in the microwave…

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

At least with Labor they undertake infrastructure projects. What was the most significant thing that Carnell did whilst in power.

madelini said :

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

The road should of been done after the bushfire when they decided on planning that area at the beginning .Not after you move and extra 10,000 people to the area with a road that can no longer handle the traffic.

It’s been done in such small sections the grader driver spends more time turning his machine around than actual grading.

It takes the ACT Labor /Greens gov 8 years to build a few kilometers of new widened road. Another $30 million, the total cost of the 5km of road must near the cost of building the Monaro hwy extension .

rommeldog56 said :

Zan said :

And of course they can never win. They built John Gorton Drive as two lanes and have been canned on this very site for waste in building a dual lane road before it is needed.

I have never heard them being “canned” for building John Gorton Drive as two lanes each way.

However, they have been “cannied”, and rightly so, for not building capacity into that duplicated road for the Tram to run.

Yep I am one of them. Don’t know why it wasn’t wider. Adelaide age John Gorton drive would be a good route with the high density housing alongside the road. Connect thru to Belco too.

madelini said :

Zan said :

Ah GDE again blaming Labor and forgetting the role the Lieberal party, both local and Federal played in that road.

Forcing a route change, forcing conflict with local residents, which resulted in a high court case, resulting in delays to construction, resulting in extra costs not only due to the route change but due to the delay. No wonder they could only afford 1 lane each way when construction started.

Re GDE extension: that wasn’t my recollection. The GDE was originally built as 1 lane each way – for whatever reason. As I recall, the duplication happened later. Because it was done in 2 stages, it cost some $23m extra.

John Hargreaves, ex MLA, is mentioned in this article :

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/gde–great-drive-eventually-20111007-1v772.html

I do not know which ACT Government, Liberal or Labor, decided to only build it as 1 lane each way originally, instead of 2 lanes each way.

The same article you linked to briefly mentions the issues I mentioned down the bottom. A lot of extra cost was caused by the forced rerouting if the road and court cases. By the time that was all sorted the kitty only allowed for single lane. Though the original plan had a single lane section it wasn’t as long as what was built. So extra costs to build single lane and extra cost to duplicate because the liberal party played politics with the road right from the beginning.

Zan said :

Forcing a route change, forcing conflict with local residents, which resulted in a high court case, resulting in delays to construction, resulting in extra costs not only due to the route change but due to the delay. No wonder they could only afford 1 lane each way when construction started.

As far as I know there was no High Court case – the NIMBYs in O’Connor successfully misused both Federal and Supreme Courts to delay the project by 11 months before the Federal Court put them back in their box and it proceeded.

In fact, the government *couldn’t* afford the single lane option – as I recall the price difference to build it as a 2-lane road was barely 137% of the cost of going with the single lane option. By going with the single lane option they eventually paid over 200% of the original price – an outstanding example of the ACT government’s long litany of woeful performances.

Zan said :

And of course they can never win. They built John Gorton Drive as two lanes and have been canned on this very site for waste in building a dual lane road before it is needed.

I have never heard them being “canned” for building John Gorton Drive as two lanes each way.

However, they have been “cannied”, and rightly so, for not building capacity into that duplicated road for the Tram to run.

Zan said :

Ah GDE again blaming Labor and forgetting the role the Lieberal party, both local and Federal played in that road.

Forcing a route change, forcing conflict with local residents, which resulted in a high court case, resulting in delays to construction, resulting in extra costs not only due to the route change but due to the delay. No wonder they could only afford 1 lane each way when construction started.

Re GDE extension: that wasn’t my recollection. The GDE was originally built as 1 lane each way – for whatever reason. As I recall, the duplication happened later. Because it was done in 2 stages, it cost some $23m extra.

John Hargreaves, ex MLA, is mentioned in this article :

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/gde–great-drive-eventually-20111007-1v772.html

I do not know which ACT Government, Liberal or Labor, decided to only build it as 1 lane each way originally, instead of 2 lanes each way.

DeadlySchnauzer said :

Why wasn’t this all done together?

Isn’t it cheaper to one big duplication than 3 to 10 smaller ones?

I believe that the cost of duplicating the bridge over Yarralumla Creek was a cause for delay.

wildturkeycanoe said :

DeadlySchnauzer said :

Why wasn’t this all done together?

Isn’t it cheaper to one big duplication than 3 to 10 smaller ones?

Of course it is. Duplication of the The GDE is another example. But I dont think the ACT labor/Greens Gov’t cares really. After all, they be be as inefficient and wasteful as they like. All they have to do is to triple Annual Rates and ratchet up increases in their Gov’t fees/charges to pay for it.

Fiscal priority setting ?
.

Ah GDE again blaming Labor and forgetting the role the Lieberal party, both local and Federal played in that road.

Forcing a route change, forcing conflict with local residents, which resulted in a high court case, resulting in delays to construction, resulting in extra costs not only due to the route change but due to the delay. No wonder they could only afford 1 lane each way when construction started.

As for the Cotter road, the road was built well well before self government. Sure the government has been duplicating in sections but at least they have created the intersections so the duplication can be done without major remodelling the re-built intersections.

And of course they can never win. They built John Gorton Drive as two lanes and have been canned on this very site for waste in building a dual lane road before it is needed.

DeadlySchnauzer said :

Why wasn’t this all done together?

Isn’t it cheaper to one big duplication than 3 to 10 smaller ones?

Of course it is. Duplication of the The GDE is another example. But I dont think the ACT labor/Greens Gov’t cares really. After all, they be be as inefficient and wasteful as they like. All they have to do is to triple Annual Rates and ratchet up increases in their Gov’t fees/charges to pay for it.

Fiscal priority setting ? And why should they care when there is such a large number “educated”, rusted Labor/Greens voters here. ACT Labor/Greens know they probably can not lose Government here……..

As an aside, it will be interesting to see if they honor this election pledge in 2016/17. After all, ACT
Labor has been promising to duplicate Ashley Drive in Tuggeranong for the last 2 or 3 elections. Its only just starting now – and then, not the last 150 meters or so.

Why wasn’t this all done together?

Isn’t it cheaper to one big duplication than 3 to 10 smaller ones?

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