18 October 2011

Kings Avenue overpass to light up for the Queen

| johnboy
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The NCA has the intriguing news for photographers that they’re going to be lighting up the Kings Avenue Overpass in shades of red white and blue for Her Majesty’s visit:

The Kings Avenue overpass will be lit red, white and blue to welcome Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to the National Capital.

National Capital Authority chief executive, Gary Rake said the overpass will be illuminated in the evenings, from Wednesday 19 October to Tuesday 25 October.

“The balustrade rails on the overpass will be coloured for one week, beginning the first day of the royal visit,” said Mr Rake.

“Hundreds of LED lights will transform the overpass in stripes of red, white and blue.

“The Kings Avenue overpass was designed to act as a gateway to Canberra. This is the first time the coloured lights have been used for an official visit,” he said.

The LED lighting is programmable and can incorporate a number of colours.

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She won’t see them tonight – at 6.30pm it is still light.

And surely it’s not going to take a Queen’s visit to actually use these lights. Every early morning when I drive under the bridge it is boring, bland, official white. Can’t we have a few colours on other days of the year?

LSWCHP said :

I reckon the nomenclature could go either way. Kings Ave passes over Parkes Way, so it’s therefore reasonable to call it the Kings Ave overpass as it is the road that is doing the passing over. On the other hand…

But why am I wasting my time on this when I’d much rather be ranting about the queen, and her impending visit?

LOL, I take your point on ranting about Ole Bess; definitely more worthwhile.

But it seems to me that the perspective of the human being, the traveller, should take precedence over the perspective of the inanimate roadway. And given that Parkes Way is obviously the gateway route, and the traveller who is arriving in Canberra at this gateway is of course on Parkes Way and not Kings Avenue, it makes me think of another option which is even more clearly the most appropriate nomenclature for this marvel of engineering: The Kings Avenue Underpass!

Either that or we could just call it a bridge and be done with it.

God save the old bat in the frilly hat! Long may she have misnamed bridges lit up in her honour!

trevar said :

It makes far more sense to name an overpass after the thing it passes over than to name the overpass after the bit it doesn’t pass over, doesn’t it?

Try saying that quickly after three schooners. 🙂

I reckon the nomenclature could go either way. Kings Ave passes over Parkes Way, so it’s therefore reasonable to call it the Kings Ave overpass as it is the road that is doing the passing over. On the other hand…

But why am I wasting my time on this when I’d much rather be ranting about the queen, and her impending visit?

“The Kings Avenue overpass was designed to act as a gateway to Canberra”

What? A gateway to a place should surely be on a road that runs between that place and another place, shouldn’t it? Why would you put a gateway to Canberra on a road that just runs from one bit of Canberra to another bit of Canberra? Why would anyone entering Canberra use Kings Avenue?

Although… now that I think about it, if you’re coming from the airport into town you’d pass under Kings Avenue… which makes me wonder even more; why is this thing called the Kings Avenue Overpass? It doesn’t pass over Kings Avenue; it passes over Parkes Way; so surely it should be called the Parkes Way Overpass? It makes far more sense to name an overpass after the thing it passes over than to name the overpass after the bit it doesn’t pass over, doesn’t it?

Oh lordy; now I’m almost as confuddled as the road makers!

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