11 March 2008

GDE = Total Failure

| Tempestas
Join the conversation
45

Now that the southbound side of GDE is open all the way through to the parkway – I used it just like I have on other days I drive, and its now slower than it was with the diversions.

It would seem that all the entry ramps from the Barton highway to Parkes-way need to be changed if there is to be any traffic flow.

On turning onto GDE from the Barton highway I was able to merge into traffic that slowed to 25k/h speeding up to 40 before Ginninderra Exist Ramp, back to 10km/h for the entry ramp (PS the C%^$ in the silver Magna with LPG – merging one for one, does not mean waiting for the people in front of you to merge so you can speed up and get three cars in front) all the way to the Belconnen exit ramp, from there it slowed to a mobile car park until after the Aranda entry ramp and Civic traffic turned off.

So either the design was completely wrong (two lanes obviously an oversight of epic proportions) of there is something else going on, perhaps my friend in the magna took the civic exit at Belco to push in again at the Aranda entry ramp.

The previous Carnell/Smyth/Humpries Govt who approved the planning for this are obviously tools, the current Stanhope/Corbell/Hargreaves lot are equally culpable for doing nothing about fixing the disaster that will take another 3 years and probably $100million more.

Join the conversation

45
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

3 weeks on and its still no better. The merging thing is the problem at Barton Hwy then Ginninderra Drv, Belconnen Way and Parkes Way.

I’m beginning to wonder if it was faster before they commenced, although the addition of at least two new sets of lights on Hayden drive in that time hasn’t helped the alternative. Oh well its only another 5 to 10 years of this before you know who is sober enough to get to work on the duplication.

Dear Canberra drivers, if you have to cross the broken white lines you have to give way. Its really simple, see broken white lines, wait for a gap. I know wait is such a hard word when you are precious and important, but nothing bad will happen honest.

well, going from mckellar to southbound there’s now 2 less lights: One turning left from caswell onto parkes way, then another going straight towards the parkway. so in that respect its probably faster, but with the slow down from merging lanes, the advantage is no so clear cut.

i dont know how they are going to add in the extra lanes (which they definitley need to do soon) without disrupting the traffic.

Isn’t there more lights now than there were 4 years ago, equating to less straight through unmolested traffic ?

These idiots running the show would get knocked out by Anthony Mundine in a boxing fight.

evryone is being TOO careful when merging, hence the build up of traffic.

It’s bloody annoying going southbound onto caswell, turning right up the belconnen way ramp, merging with the other turning right lane, then merging again with the GDE lane.
Then crawling at 40km/h single file until you get to Glenlock, you then merge YET AGAIN with the folks coming up the new Southbound Glenlock ramp from parkes way.

Why put so many merging lanes in a city of drivers that don’t know how to merge properly?

Also im not so sure they can fit 4 lanes over the GDE bridges. It looks very narrow.

I must say though that during non-peak hours the drive from mckellar to philip is alot faster now. But im only camparing this to the last few months which has encountered all the road works. Who knows if it’s any faster than what it was originally 4 years ago.

Growling Ferret10:20 am 14 Mar 08

Same thing Tempe – the mongs from Belconnen have no idea how to merge and then the traffic backs up. Once they work it out then everything flows freely again.

All it takes is two idiots to slow the flow for everyone….

tried it again this morning a fair bit earlier and although it was better, the speed dropped quite a bit and again came to a standstill after the Aranda entry ramp.

Said it before, but if you are in the lane with “Left Lane Ends Merge Right” you have to give way to the straight through traffic – who once they speed up will leave gaps for you to merge in. Works on other entry ramps on highways all over the world – honest it does.

Motorists would work too.

The Parkway was backed up this morning because of an accident near Glenloch.

There was also a number of coppers mopping up after an accident past BMT in between where you turn off to go to the Uni, and where you turn off to get to CIT.

Been living here for a number of years now, and I still haven’t the faintest of what the name of that road is though…

Felix the Cat9:40 pm 12 Mar 08

The Parkway was backed up this morning because of an accident near Glenloch.

A roo jumped through the windscreen of a car apparently. Wouldn’t of happened if we were allowed to cull them – the roos, not the motorists…

The Parkway was backed up this morning because of an accident near Glenloch.

Took the bus this am -William Hovell/Parkes Way seems to flow better now there is not that silly turn off lane. The Parkway was backed up to Hindmarsh though, so looks like nothing much has got better.

Interestingly the Australian Road rules state that the on ramps with the broken white lines actually are supposed to give way to the straight through traffic – that certainly wasn’t the case yesterday.

swissbignose9:19 am 12 Mar 08

From what I was hearing on the radio this morning, a number of the arterial roads were running slow this morning. Cotter Road backed up to Coppins Crossing, the roundabout at Parkes Way/Kings Avenue was backed up down Kings Avenue, and Athlon Drive was also heavy.

Growling Ferret8:34 am 12 Mar 08

Driving in this morning at 7:40, GDE was backed up beyond the Barton Highway overpass – approx 7km tailback I assume.

I took Northbourne to avoid the frustration. Back to the back streets of O’Connor for this rat.

GDE road has hit peak load already – and is a disaster…

There was an article in the CT today featuring a complaint from the NRMA which said GDE traffic gridlock is as bad as the worst traffic jams in Sydney.

While I understand that the Government wanted to get it partially operational for now, the second lane is not expected for another two years.

……and I had such high expectations for the GDE! I thought it would be magic, but the Government in all their wisdom found a way to f%$k it up.

Duke the road surface is decided on by the classification of the road. Well normally. The road surfaces that have been choosen are silly, but yet again they were choosen that way when the design was done. One of the plans on the GDE website clearly shows the changes in road surface. IMI it all should have been hotmix, none of the sprayed on tar shit. Look at when the put that out in Jerra, it lasted about 6 weeks before it started to break up and if I recall is no longer there. The spray on shit is only ok for cheap temp roads, such as the back road from Federal Highway/Majura road to Gungahlin. Not for a permament road surface.

Saw a few Subaru Foresters with those silly auxilliary lights on tonight. Mmm come to think of it, they all seem to have them on. Must be a bit like those daytime running lights on older Volvos. They dazzle a bit, but in laissez-faire Canberra who really gives a hoot about anybody else?

I think everyone got a bit ahead of themselves this morning thinking they could drive straight from the parkway onto parkes way when it’s the other way which has opened, the traffic was rediculous, but then it has steadily getting worse over the past 2 or so weeks.

I actually used the new southbound road onto the parkway tonight, admittidly I left work a bit late at about 6pm, and it was smooth sailing all the way.

It took me a while to figure out how someone would turn right from bindubi street onto parkes way, but then realised felix meant william hovell dr. I agree with him it’s been a lot quicker going that way, you get the casey stoners and michael schumachers going that way who think you doing 10km/hr over the 80 speed limit is still to slow on the narrow road and overtake dangerously at the first opportunity. reminds me stanhopeless should invest in building hard shoulders for the road for the cyclists with a death wish before someone (driver or cyclist) gets killed.

Anyway, I think you will find the original plan for the GDE was a 2 lane road each way, but it got cost cut by the current govt (and still didn’t make budget). Now they will need to try and fix the mess and build the other lanes in the next 5 years..

Felix the Cat8:30 pm 11 Mar 08

I regularly leave Mitchell at 5pm and head out to Stromlo Forest Park for a bike ride and found the quickest way is to avoid Glenoch Interschmozzle (haven’t actually tried it now the new bit is open) but to use GDE until Belco Way and then head towards Belco and turn up Bindubi St and then right onto Parkes Way and left onto Coppins Crossing Road. Takes about 20 mins during peak hour. Probably take 2hrs next time with all the extra traffic from RiotActers…Going via Glenoch takes usually 1/2 hour to the minute.

Roads are generally built one lane each way and then duplicated later. It is a lot quicker to build two lanes than 4. Budget costs also factor in to this. This allows the road to be used then added to in a later financial year.

Tempestas comment above got me thinking.

Cost appears to drive all decisions when it comes to roadworks, so I had a look at the income derived from rego and transfer fees noted in the ACT Budget papers. These are listed at about $26.5M.

This seemed low, so I checked the ABS figures on the number of vehicles registered on ACT roads.
177,000+ vehicles were shown in 2002! Let me guess at 200,000 today. If I allow an average of $400 per annum for registration alone (no transfer taxes included), my calculator tells me the ACT Gov is pulling in about $80M per annum.

I’m sure my maths are probably open to criticism, and I would love to be proved wrong, but how can $80M be called $26.5M in the budget papers?

Apparently the AIS and Aranda residents (who are easily spooked) got special noise reducing hotmix, everyone else got the cheapest stuff to pay for the noice reducing surface.

That sounds about right JC but I think the Government has felt the pressure of these delays and wanted it at least partially completed by this time. As you say we will put up with the delays in another couple of years when they put in the second lane.

Not working in road construction, does anybody know why the surfaces keep changing? It’s like they got a discount on ashphalt one week, then cement the next, because the surface, which is brand new, is rubbish!

Well Mick there was no sneakyness about it, it was always intended to be built as a two lane road and duplicated later. It is a stupid thing it should have been done now. What will happen is when the time comes, another round of disruptions and the cost will be far greater than if it was done today. The other thing that might happen is Athlon Drive, where duplicating it has been forgotton. Just take a look at that and think how hard it would be to start duplicating it. It was done properly where at least the intersections are already aligned and capable of taking the extra lanes.

From what I can see, they have made the GDE with every intention of making it 2 lanes each way eventually. If you look at the super intersection, you can see where there is space for another 2 lanes. Same at Ginninderra Drive. THere are 2 big black walls where the road goes over, one has the overpass, the other one is blank.

I think they have been sneaky and just cut down the cost and time of putting the initial road in, and will expand it after this road has been in for a year or so.

Foresters are gold. Got a baby on board too – no sticker though.

Never owned a volvo. Had a Dato 120 Y bother though.

Subaru drivers are the new Volvo drivers. Especially the foresters with the ‘baby on board’ stickers.

Safety features. They buy them for safety features.

Don’t call me safety features.

Absent Diane3:09 pm 11 Mar 08

non-existant ramps tend to not exist anywhere that they are expected to exist; albeit somewhat confusing it is art.

danman: in the “old days” I would have done Ngunnawal to Weston Ck via Gundaroo Dr / William Slim / (Ginninderra or Baldwin ) / Haydon / Caswell then the parkway.

el ......Turbo V8 Recumbent Bicycle1:27 pm 11 Mar 08

Non-existant ramps would be fairly frightening, methinks.

And don’t forget the ‘special’ volunteer wannabe traffic police who merge in front of people to deliberately hold them up Tempestas – all in the name of ‘road safety’ of course.

I’m particularly worried about the “exist lanes” and the “exist ramp”: they sound very peculiar.
Ok so they were typos and you cant edit your posts here – either that or perhaps there is something existential and exit lanes and ramps.

Merging does seem to be a problem in this town, I’m always happy to go one for one, but based on the bad driving habits thread there are some who think they are special and entitled to merge later to ensure the traffic behind them is slowed even more.

Leave earlier – if you can – and dodge the worst of it.

Oh and Ngunnawal to Weston Ck 25 minutes on the speed limit. Thats a world of difference from going down northbourne, adelaide avenue then cotter road.

I leave Ngunnawal at 0720 most days and get to my undisclosed free parking in civic 15 minutes later.

At Between 0800 and 0930 this drive will take 30 to 40 minutes.

Even when I get stuck at work and caught in the evening rush hour, i still get home in a reasonable amount of time.

Growling Ferret1:00 pm 11 Mar 08

Put it down to first day nerves as everyone saw where the road went. And mongaloids who can’t merge… and I am talking to those who came from Belconnen Way/Aranda on to the GDE

I was hoping to find a traffic nirvana this morning, but like Tempestas said, it was actually worse.

So, if Glenloch is flowing well, then where’s the delays? Is it just nongs who can’t merge at speed?

Sounds like a mess. I’m particularly worried about the “exist lanes” and the “exist ramp”: they sound very peculiar.

Talking about mongrel drivers in magnas, volvos, camrys etc., I encountered a total mongrel this morning while walking across the zebra crossing outside the John Gorton Building. This small-d**ked character, who drives a somewhat decrepit-looking stretch limo sporting the numberplate “KINGPIN”, thinks it a grand idea to rev his engine and creep forward menacingly at pedestrians using a crossing on which they have right of way (and who were, I should emphasise, in no way dawdling).

Has anybody else encountered this jerk?

Got to work in 20 minutes this morning, awesome. Everyone stop complaining.

i hate this disater at peak hour. especially when stupid canberra drivers (not everyone) go that bloody slow in the morning when there are merge lanes and these people are the ones causing accidents. speed up people! also i think it should be 100km but ultimately it needs 2 lanes.
oh and nobody can take over the volvo drivers NOBODY!

fk the GDE… when are they ever going to duplicate ATHLON DRIVE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? 2×2 lanes thanks.. Its been the most annoying fkn drive to work for the last 7 years and its getting worse by the day… 2 lanes everywhere except when you get onto athlon between tuggers and the roundabout – yet they can spend millions on a useless solution on the other side of town… yes it is all about me

Holden Caulfield11:28 am 11 Mar 08

No DT you’re wrong, Camry is the new Volvo. I know it is wrong to stereotypem but it is friggin uncanny how many Camry drivers are complete nongs.

Drove from Mitchell to Woden in around 15 minutes on the weekend, but I still avoid the GDE during peak hour.

The idea of a single lane is simply diabolical!

Magna drivers. The new Volvo drivers.

Drove from Barton Hwy to Belconnen Way the other day behind a car doing a leasurly 70km/h without another car in sight.

Prehaps they wanted to take their time and enjoy the public art?

Got to work in 20 minutes this morning, awesome.

I’ve been through there a couple of times now…no problems. Has sped the drive from Gunners to Weston Ck up by 10 minutes or more for me.

Strangely the Glenloch bit, was where the traffic actually flowed, once the Civic traffic took its exist lane to Parkes way the traffic sped up.

What was it I said last week?
That the government had looked at the abortion that was the Glenloch interchange and found new ways to screw it up, and that’s the changes we were getting?
Seems like it was so.
Is it just me who refuses to take any path that will go via the Glenloch, for fear of getting stuck there for weeks in the neverending traffic jam?
I thank the gods I don’t have to commute through it.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.