Kaleen planning gripes

If there’s not much traffic and you’re quick, you can turn right onto the Barton Hwy. My big gripe in Kaleen is the left turn from Maribyrnong onto Baldwin. I would like to find the ACT public servant who decided that there would be no more dedicated left turn. I would happily use chemical warfare on them.

… wanting to inflame the argument a little …

Being a denizen of Kaleen, I cannot help noticing that each and every improvement for other people around Kallen impacts me negatively. As the OP rightly identifies Ellenborough is the main way to get almost anywhere from Kaleen. To go the long way to the city you still have to go down Ellenborough to get onto the Barton highway or Ginenderra Dve and then the GDE. OTherwise you have to queue up behind the people who get in front via the Barton Hwy and go the whole way to Northbourne ave or the rat run through Turner.

Of course there is another way. Down Haydon Dve. Now there is a new suburb Lawson that will add another great bottleneck (lights are already installed and slowing everything down. It seems that everywhere around Kaleen is being congested and that the roads which were adequate for the 80s and 90s when Kaleen and Giralang were the only destinations down those roads have been turned over to the needs of others. Unfortunately, we how live in Kaleen seem never to be consulted or get consideration for the trouble it causes us. In 2005 I could get to Civic leaving at 7:40 in 14 minutes. Now it takes at least 22 minutes. Minor inconvenience? how many people would like to have a 50% increase in travel time over 7 years and be happy about it?

Another way to think of providing a bit of amenity to Kaleen residents is that it would clear the roads in Kaleen (Maribyrnong and Ellenborough)quicker so that those passing through from Gungahlin would also get the benefits.

Compare with the luxury roadworks that Aranda residents got for having the GDE go past them and you wonder what went wrong at Kallen?

You do know that there is another fairly direct route from Kaleen to EPIC and Northbourne?
Ellenborough St., Barton Hwy north, Gungahlin Dr north, Sandford St., Morisset Rd, Old Well Station Rd, Northbourne Av.

Slightly further than going via Dickson (about 300m) but it cuts out many sets of traffic lights.

Couldn’t agree more with what’s been said. Agree with the OP in theory although can see the right turn is too dangerous, very unlikely to happen. Completely agree it’s all the people turning in off Barton that make Ellenborough such a nightmare. School holidays are the only time it’s worth taking the bus from Kaleen/Giralang! The larger problem is connecting Ginniderra to Barton.

Like the GDE connection idea but doubtful it would happen.

And completely absolutely 100% agree the simplest fix in the meantime is much much longer slip lane to go North on Northbourne from Mouat.

I could easily be labelled a rat runner myself, coming from NSW north of the ACT and turning right off the Barton Highway onto Ellenborough – but I then drop kids off at Lyneham primary after joining the huge lineup for the turn at the lights into Lyneham (the left lane here should be made a slip lane past the lights). I often see traffic coming out of Kaleen backed up along Ellenborough St well past the Barton Hwy turn off. I remember living in Kaleen and using Mouat St when it was still part of the Barton Highway and am pretty amazed that the North Lyneham and Yowani developments were not made to duplicate that section of the road between the Barton Hwy turnoff and Ginninderra Dr as part of Development application infrastructure remediation. There is also still that stupid section at the stormwater drain that forces traffic to merge into a single lane to disrupt smooth traffic flow between Northbourne Ave and Ginninderra Dr.

caf said :

Deref: When travelling north you also have the option of turning left onto the Barton Highway, then turning around at Bellenden St.

That’s true – I’ve used that a few times as well as going through Mitchell, though it doesn’t really make much difference one way or the other.

Screaming Banshee’s suggestion of a longer slip lane at Mouat/Northbourne is an excellent one!

Thanks to those who posted thoughtful responses.

It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens once Gungahlin Drive’s open. I drove it yesterday to see how it was coming along – it looks almost finished, but one of the two lanes was blocked off in both directions without any purpose that I could see.

caak said :

With all the GDE changes we have been screwed with every so called upgrade.

My biggest gripe at the moment is all the excess Gungahlin traffic that turn off the Barton Hwy and go down Ellenborough St every morning making it chaos for Kaleen residents trying to get to the city.

Why is it that Gungahlin residents have multiple options to get to Dickson, Lyneham or the city, yet they choose the stop traffic on Ellenborough every morning? There was a bad accident just last week due to impatient people pushing in.

Kaleen residents have been left out of all alternate options to get to the city and places like EPIC etc.
All due to the GDE…

I vote for a No Right Turn sign on the Barton Hwy between 0800-0930 stopping access to Ellenborough St.

+1. All true. I’m always amazed how many people use that rat run through Kaleen/Lyneham/O’Connor, but I guess it is way faster to travel that way to ANU/Civic West etc. Completing the GDE (if it ever happens) won’t solve the problem because it’ll still be faster to go through Lyneham (GDE is too roundabout a route, plus soon there will be 2 years of major road works on Parkes way to add more lanes, so more disruption, and by the time it’s over there will be yet more traffic on the roads due to extra Gungahlin and Molonglo residents. It’ll never flow smoothly at peak times, believe me).

The road people would get better bang for their buck if they just fixed one of the main problems, Northbourne, through more lanes, less or at least more sensibly synched traffic lights, and 80kmh speed limit. Northbourne is by far and away the most direct arterial route and if it actually flowed smoothly rat running would be cut right back

Deref: When travelling north you also have the option of turning left onto the Barton Highway, then turning around at Bellenden St.

I can see why we cant turn right onto Barton, while I personally would have no issue with making the turn and wouldn’t even consider it during heavy traffic, the growing number of drivers that appear to have won their licence in a cereal packet would see frequent accidents. The fact that you cant turn right there still doesn’t stop some people though.

Having said that it is overly painful to head North on Northbourne, especially at peak times when every other car on the roads we have to use is heading South. A possible solution would be a long slip lane for left turning traffic at mouat or barton however this would ultimately lead to cars taking a left turn from the slip lane and then doing a u-turn south to avoid the queue.

With the no right turn, you’d have to consider the impact on those genuinly travelling to north lyneham but from most directions diverting via the gde or william slim onto ginninderra should suffice.

Now the GDE ellenborough drive exit would just be complete overkill and from a roads planning / traffic management point of view would cause too many problems as its too close to the barton exchange.

caak said :

All due to the GDE…

I vote for a No Right Turn sign on the Barton Hwy between 0800-0930 stopping access to Ellenborough St.

One sign, easy fix.

Well the no right turn pre-dated the GDE by quite some time, IIRC.

Agree on the no right turn between 8 and 930 thought. If the 730-930 sign on ellenbourough st into lyneham is anything to go by, the cops would raise enough revenue in a month to pay for an overpass!