8 December 2010

Monaro Highway duplication kicks off

| johnboy
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The Chiefly Stanhope has decreed the opening of tenders for the duplication of the Monaro Highway.

Construction companies interested in completing the upgrade of the Monaro Highway in Fyshwick have until 27 January to submit their best bid under the tender process being managed by the ACT Government.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the project will involve duplicating the 1.5 kilometre section of Highway between Newcastle Street and Canberra Avenue as well as constructing new bridges over Canberra Avenue and across the existing rail line.

“As well as delivering safer driving conditions, the new duplicated section will ease traffic congestion through Fyshwick for the 40,000 motorists that use this road every day,” said Mr Albanese.

“Indeed this section of the Monaro Highway is the last to be converted from single to dual carriageway.”

This $20 million road project is being jointly funded, with the Gillard Labor Government contributing $18.5 million and the remainder coming from the Stanhope Labor Government.

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I know there’s all sorts of difference between here and SE Asia. Even so, I drive through those areas almost every day, and there never seems to be more than a few blokes standing around on each site and progress seems non-existent. Is it not possible to get qualified people to work on these gigs? Am I mistaken? Does anybody know what the deal is here?

The longer it takes the more it costs, which in turn equals more profit for company doing the work and more money in the economy though the pay given to those ‘working’ on said projects.

I reckon that it, like all current roadworks in the ACT as far as I can tell, will have one solitary dude working on it for a total of about 2 hours every day, resulting in a completion date sometime around 2043. Any bets on when the GDE will be completed?

A bloke’s gotta have smoko, what’s your problem?

I took a cab to the airport a few months ago, and the driver was of Asian descent. We drove past the deserted GDE “roadworks”, then the deserted King Avenue overpass “roadworks”. As we crept through the morass of the deserted Piallogo area “roadworks”, he said something to the effect of “You people are f*cking crazy. Back home, we’d have a thousand men working on each of those jobs, and they would all have taken about 3 months each to complete.”.

I know there’s all sorts of difference between here and SE Asia. Even so, I drive through those areas almost every day, and there never seems to be more than a few blokes standing around on each site and progress seems non-existent. Is it not possible to get qualified people to work on these gigs? Am I mistaken? Does anybody know what the deal is here?

I reckon that it, like all current roadworks in the ACT as far as I can tell, will have one solitary dude working on it for a total of about 2 hours every day, resulting in a completion date sometime around 2043. Any bets on when the GDE will be completed?

A bloke’s gotta have smoko, what’s your problem?

I reckon that it, like all current roadworks in the ACT as far as I can tell, will have one solitary dude working on it for a total of about 2 hours every day, resulting in a completion date sometime around 2043. Any bets on when the GDE will be completed?

KB1971 said :

Deref said :

How about the Barton?

It is duplicated?????

Well to the border anyway, you need to talk to Christina about that one…….

Don’t waste your time. Wait a few months and you can talk to Fatty O’Barrell.

Thoroughly Smashed10:04 am 09 Dec 10

Aenveigh said :

I love that they call it an “upgrade”. It’s more accurately described in the RA title as a duplication, or otherwise a widening.

You seem to have a different definition of upgrade to the rest of us.

Felix the Cat said :

Please tell me Abergeldie haven’t been awarded the contract….

It wasn’t just Abergeldie, Sellick Consultants, International Formwork & Scaffolding also had people who gave signoff on the GDE Formwork.

Deref said :

How about the Barton?

It is duplicated?????

Well to the border anyway, you need to talk to Christina about that one…….

How about the Barton?

Crap, I drive under this every day, hopefully the traffic delays are not too bad!

Given that for the most part they left enough space to build the extra lanes I don’t see why it would add any traffic delays to the existing road. Although having said that they will probably lower the speed limit as a matter of course as soon as any barriers are put up between the road and the new lanes.

Aenveigh said :

I love that they call it an “upgrade”. It’s more accurately described in the RA title as a duplication, or otherwise a widening.
And while the duplication will initially ease traffic congestion… what’s going to happen when the new space fills up, too?

Sounds like you have never been there. It is a single lane section in between two reasonably flowing sections of road, so its not like it going to fill up. Also should be pretty easy to build without too much disruption as they were smart enough to do most of the prep work for the 2nd set of bridges when they built it, well with the railway bridge anyway.

Holden Caulfield11:32 pm 08 Dec 10

Crap, I drive under this every day, hopefully the traffic delays are not too bad!

about f-ing time. Now if they can just see their way to making the finished road 100 or 110 kph we might be making progress.

About bloody time!!

Growling Ferret7:57 pm 08 Dec 10

Hope it happens quicker than GDE. Its going backwards at the moment….

I love that they call it an “upgrade”. It’s more accurately described in the RA title as a duplication, or otherwise a widening.
And while the duplication will initially ease traffic congestion… what’s going to happen when the new space fills up, too?

Felix the Cat7:55 pm 08 Dec 10

Please tell me Abergeldie haven’t been awarded the contract….

This is a Good Thing(TM)… but I wonder how much lane closing and detouring will be needed during construction?

About time. I never understood why this bit was built the way it was.

About damn time.

About time. That’s 1.5km of road that should have been duplicated at the same time as the rest of it.

Only 15 years over-due

georgesgenitals6:08 pm 08 Dec 10

Let’s have a little think about what this will mean when all that traffic pours uninhibited down to Morshead Drive, shall we?

(Actually, once they get the Parkes Way / Kings Ave intersection finished, it should make the run into the city via the Monaro Hwy pretty good).

karmacarrier6:07 pm 08 Dec 10

Not bad.
I can’t remember when the existing bridge was built.
But I do know that it’s been a bottleneck for years.
Morning peak time northbound traffic stops at the Hindmarsh overpass and crawls until it gets over Newcastle Street.
Then it miraculously gets to a sensible speed.
The southbound afternoon peak gets similar treatment.
I think this is a fair reflection of a visionary Government.
It can see a problem that needed a solution many years ago.
Reminiscient of the honourable John’s federal Government.
His could see back 50 years.
Stanhope is still an apprentice.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

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