18 September 2019

Government to duplicate 4.5 kilometres of William Hovell Drive

| Lachlan Roberts
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William Hovell Drive

William Hovell Drive between Drake Brockman Drive and John Gorton Drive is set to be duplicated. Photo: Ozroads.

The ACT Government has released a tender to duplicate 4.5 kilometres of William Hovell Drive to improve commute times as new suburbs are developed in the Molonglo Valley and West Belconnen.

The section of William Hovell Drive between Drake Brockman Drive and John Gorton Drive, previously named Coppins Crossing Road, is the latest stage to be duplicated, with on-road cycle lanes and an off-road shared path expected to be part of the upgrades.

The tender said that section of William Hovell Drive is often congested during the AM and PM peak traffic times, and the congestion will only increase as the Molonglo Valley, the estate of Ginninderry, and the new suburbs of Strathnairn and Macnamara continue to develop and generate traffic.

The upgrade must remain within the existing road reserve as the important nature conservation areas of the Pinnacle Nature Reserve and Kama Nature Reserve that lie to the north and south of the road must not be encroached upon, the tender said.

The project may also incorporate ecological corridors between the two nature reserve areas into the design, as well as roadside parking.

The tender also recommended a traffic study to determine the capacity of the existing Drake Brockman Drive roundabout and whether a signalised intersection should replace the roundabout.

With more than 20,000 vehicles using William Hovell Drive every day, ACT Minister for Transport Chris Steel said there is a clear need to improve commute times as new suburbs are developed in the Molonglo Valley and West Belconnen.

“We are providing significant investment into road and cycling upgrades to ease congestion, and keep Canberrans safe and moving around our city efficiently,” Mr Steel said.

“Canberra is growing and we’re committed to investing in our road network whilst also improving cycling, walking and public transport infrastructure, ensuring that Canberrans have a choice in how they commute and move around our city.”

Detailed designs will also be prepared in coming months to upgrade Morisset Road in Mitchell to support future development in the area. Morisset Road is currently 1.25 kilometres long and built to rural road standards, meaning it is only suitable for low volumes of traffic.

Mr Steel said the government is investigating upgrading the existing road to meet current design standards, extending it by 1.2 kilometres to the Antill Street/Federal Highway intersection and providing stormwater infrastructure on Sullivan’s Creek to reduce flooding incidents.

He said providing a link directly to the Federal Highway along Morisset Road will divert heavy vehicle traffic away from Flemington Road which will improve the safety of all road users.

The works will also include paths for pedestrians and cyclists directly to the future light rail stop in Mitchell.

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Kuringa Drive must be upgraded too and lights put in at its intersection with Kingsford Smith Drive. Nightmare trying to turn onto Kuringa drive in peak hours

That intersection could be improved by straightening the approach from Fraser to give better visibility of vehicles coming from Fraser. Not sure why when the resurfaced Kuringa about 10 years ago they didn’t straighten out some of it. It wouldn’t have been too hard.

And lights on Owen Dixon will help the Kingsford Smith drive intersection by providing a break in traffic coming from the Barton Highway direction.

Crazed_Loner11:23 pm 26 Sep 19

Hooray. I’m sick to death of following muppets doing 75 kph downhill (and often braking to boot) in a 90 zone.

Shows the contempt for sourthsiders
https://the-riotact.com/william-slim-drive-duplication-leads-list-of-road-promises/185797

Last election the duplication of Athllon drive was promised, all we got was a new bus stop later followed the removal of several bus routes. (Lucky we got the new one ay).

Now the government is duplicating William Hovell, previously it was only mentioned to be design work.

North side projects are funded off the back of closing up southside infrastructure.
No more buses hydro pool or indoor ice skating rink.

The first hint of complexity barr threatened to cancel the tram leg to woden. (Of which he doesn’t want to do anyway.)

The only duplication happening in half of canberra is Rates!

Hasn’t our Minister for Road Transport been Green Shane Rattenbury for a decade? Won’t his “car free days” fix the problem?

Will make getting to the jam on Parkes Way so much quicker!

Just don’t use the same contractors that did coppins crossing road and its intersection with william hovell. I could have done what they did with a shovel and wheelbarrow in the >12 months it took them to do less than 1km of road and an intersection.

Silly question but what does duplication mean exactly? You might think it means doubling the number of lanes but think back to the original duplication of Majura Road at the airport. That exact word was used at the time and for the same reason, in recognition of the increase in traffic. The delivered result was not an actual road duplication but a few turn-off lanes and a 10kph speed reduction. Progress, politician style.

In my few years in Belconnen I have seen a number of rear enders just south of the choke point at Drake Brockman. I have watched human behaviour in action as drivers trundle along at 60 and 80 in the single lane 90kph zone, seemingly oblivious to the traffic banked up behind them. And we know what happens when the road widens into two lanes. Can we have a plain english duplication please.

I don’t recall Majura road being duplicated as you put it. I do remember some improvements and the Majura parkway but don’t recall them being sold as duplication.

And in plain English duplication is adding a seperate carriageway. Though how many lanes that carriageway has is debatable though in the case of William Hovell Drive I would expect two lanes each way.

Find and read the Canberra Times of the day. EXACTLY the same word used in the headline of the story. And yes I agree I would expect two lanes each way as well which is why I brought that old story up.

Just looked in Tove and can fine no articles that mention duplication of Majura Road except some from the mid 80’s.

The improvements they made prior to the Majura Parkway were just that improvements not duplication.

And duplication could mean any number of lanes each 1. One each way on separate carriageways is still a duplicated road.

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