29 September 2011

Kaleen planning gripes

| Deref
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Ellenborough Street is one of the major exits from Kaleen. Before the Barton Highway upgrade we used to be able to turn right from the slip lane from Ellenborough St onto the Barton Hwy but, since that right turn disappeared, if we want to head north on the Federal Hwy, we have to go the long way around along Mouat St to turn left onto Northbourne. This adds significant distance to the trip and four sets of traffic lights. It’s time-consuming, wasteful, and a PITA.

Am I the only Kaleen resident who’d like to get that right turn reinstated? Are there enough of us to lobby for it?

My other gripe is the lack of an Ellenborough St exit and entry onto Gungahlin Drive. If we’re coming from the south, our only options are to exit from Gungahlin Dr at Gininderra Dr or to continue on to the Barton Hwy. Either one means a substantial detour. (Getting onto Gungahlin Dr isn’t too bad; we can turn left from Ellenborough onto the Barton Hwy and then left at Gungahlin Dr. – it’s getting off that’s the problem.)

It would have been a comparatively trivial matter for them to add an Ellenborough St exit during Gungahlin Drive’s construction, but no doubt it’d be a substantial job of work now.

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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.

CatlikeTread6:41 pm 03 Mar 12

… 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?

patrick_keogh9:54 pm 28 Nov 11

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.

screaming banshee9:25 pm 29 Sep 11

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.

devils_advocate9:04 pm 29 Sep 11

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!

devils_advocate9:01 pm 29 Sep 11

The intersection between Barton Hwy and Kaleen is still a blackspot, always bloody accidents there. People getting t-boned after failing to give way exiting the hwy onto ellenborough. It’s tough that they had to remove the right turn but it probably saved a lot of accidents.
A lot of it is the fault of the ACT govt and having perpetual roadworks on the GDE. People coming from the north take the shortcut through lyneham and oconnor.

Back on topic – no way would kaleen residents want a direct on ramp onto/off the GDE. People would start using Kaleen as a shortcut to get to Giralang etc, the traffic would become ridiculous. Also there are houses that back onto Ellenborough st. it would become intolerable.

I’ll bite..

I’m a Kaleen resident of some 15+ years.

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.

One sign, easy fix.

You can turn right. You just need to pick your moment. I do it when I want to go to Mitchell.

Well the right turn option was removed because people coming from Kaleen caused a significant number of accidents by becoming impatient and failing to give way. From what I hear, there are still numerous accidents at that intersection caused by people turning from the Barton Hwy into Kaleen not giving way.

Changing the intersetion for the few people who would want to turn right would be a waste of money.

buzz819 said :

If you wanted it your way, you’d have, Ellenbourough and Barton Highway, Barton Highway and Randwick Drive and Barton Highway and Northbourne.

Sorry if I gave that impression. There’s no way I’d support a traffic light solution.

Yeah, no.

The set of traffic lights would effect everyone on the Barton Highway, the right hand turn was deleted as I believe it was a black spot, and in all fairness, not really needed.

I would not call 2km’s “A significant distance.” I understand during peak hour it would add, 5 maybe 10 minutes to your commute, but that is better than yet another set of lights that are only needed for maybe an hour a day.

I can only count 3 sets of traffic lights, well extra any way, Mouat and Ginninderra, Mouat and Brigalow, Northbourne and Mouat, and Barton Highway and Northbourne, these ones you’d have to go through anyway, so I didn’t count them. Sorry, forgot about the ones on Cossington Smith Dr.

If you wanted it your way, you’d have, Ellenbourough and Barton Highway, Barton Highway and Randwick Drive and Barton Highway and Northbourne.

So you would be saving two sets of lights, plus the traffic backed up all the way along Ellenborough because of the new set of lights and Barton Highway being the major road more people waiting to turn right there, then the cost of the new set of lights and the accidents from people not being able to drive properly AND the fact that in the end you are only saving 2 km’s?

I live in the area and can see why it is has not been changed and why it should not be changed.

troll-sniffer2:30 pm 29 Sep 11

Deref said :

Blamemonkey said :

Where are you heading?

Expensive I suppose, although, again, it wouldn’t have added much to the cost of the refurbishment if they’d done it at the time.

I think you’ll find that the provision of any sort of overpass/underpass would run into millions, even if done in conjunction with other works. Even a set of lights for that corner would exceed $500,000 by the time all the peripheral works were completed.

Not sure why you think that large area traffic management plans should be compromised for the sake of a fraction of a percent of Kaleen motorists who are inconvenienced by about a minute or two, I guess that’s your perogative, but I doubt it will wash with the traffic engineers responsible for coordinating all northside traffic.

Deref said :

I’m sympathetic to that, but there ways to give us back the right turn without traffic lights – an overpass or underpass for example. Expensive I suppose, although, again, it wouldn’t have added much to the cost of the refurbishment if they’d done it at the time.

If you are headed to Fyshwick or Brindabella Business park, then I feel you pain as I also work in Fyshwick and the commute from Fyshwick to Kaleen can be special at best, But as you have stated the cost and also the negative impact on others would out weigh the benefits for the few.

Blamemonkey said :

Where are you heading?

Heading north on Northbourne.

Blamemonkey said :

The on/off ramp for the GDE is not needed and I think for the sake of convenience the right turn would add, it would also add accidents or if you install traffic lights there you would be effecting many people who drive down barton hwy to save Kaleen and probably north lyneham residents a minute or two.

*lives in Kaleen

I’m sympathetic to that, but there ways to give us back the right turn without traffic lights – an overpass or underpass for example. Expensive I suppose, although, again, it wouldn’t have added much to the cost of the refurbishment if they’d done it at the time.

I remember there being a large number of accidents there which IIRC is why they did away with it in the first place. I don’t know – to me it seems like it would cause more harm that good, just to shave a minute or two off your trip.

Out of curiosity how often do you want to head that way?

Where are you heading?

The on/off ramp for the GDE is not needed and I think for the sake of convenience the right turn would add, it would also add accidents or if you install traffic lights there you would be effecting many people who drive down barton hwy to save Kaleen and probably north lyneham residents a minute or two.

*lives in Kaleen

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