27 October 2009

Monash Drive to be dropped

| Kramer
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Monash Drive has been part of the National Capital Plan for many years now, threatening to cut off the suburbs of Ainslie & Hackett from their bushland backyard. The ABC reports that the National Capital Authority (NCA) is going to drop Monash Drive from the National Capital Plan, and as expected the Greens are jumping for joy.

As a keen mountain biker, I’m quite happy for the bushland around Mt Majura & Ainslie to remain intact. As a Canberra resident I feel that by dropping Monash Drive from the National Capital Plan they are removing an option for future transport routes through Canberra. As Majura Road and Majura Ave & Limestone Ave continue to see increased traffic, maybe we need to consider the Monash Drive option?

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Gungahlin Al8:48 am 29 Oct 09

I’ve received the following information from the NCA on this issue:

The article in yesterday’s Canberra Times was misleading. The current situation is as follows:

The ACT Government has requested that the National Capital Authority remove the provision for Monsah Drive from the National Capital Plan. On Friday the NCA Board will consider this request.

If the board agrees to propose an amendment, the NCA will issue a draft amendment to the Plan for public consultation. The consultation period will run for 30 business days. As part of our consultation process the NCA will run at least one public consultation forum. In addition, I and other officers of the NCA would be happy to attend a meeting of the GCC to discuss the draft amendment.

Following consultation the NCA will consider public comments and make alter the draft amendment in response to comments made. A consultation report is then issued to the public along with the modified draft Amendment. After that a recommendation is made to the Minister for Home Affairs that the Plan be amended.

The full process is described in our consultation protocol which can be found at

http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/downloads/planning_and_urban_design/consultation_reports/Consultation_Protocol_July2007.pdf

The NCA is also having a public forum at Parliament House on 26 November. At the forum there will be significant amounts of time set aside for members of the public to ask questions about the work of the NCA. I encourage you to attend. Further information on the forum is at

http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/

anonymous gungahlian5:48 pm 28 Oct 09

I think that this road would of been very convenient for Gungahlin and other residents of Gundaroo, Wamboin, Bywong, Sutton ect. who want to travel south without having to stop every 200m along Northbourne Avenue. I also agree with what CapitalK said, that the people of Hackett and Ainslie would benifit from it most, when their suburbs are not a rat-run during peak hour. Remember that when people of the Gungahlin Region and surrounding NSW towns travel south, they are not always traveling to the City, and may want to bypass it without major traffic delays.

Felix the Cat4:47 pm 28 Oct 09

As a keen mountain biker, I’m quite happy for the bushland around Mt Majura & Ainslie to remain intact.

Isn’t the new Majura Parkway going to interfere with Mt Majura?

Gungahlin Al1:16 pm 28 Oct 09

Grail said :

Other options that are less drastic than sterilising the entire human population would include encouraging workers to explore skewed work hours – some start at 7 and go through to 3, others start at 10 and go through to 6. Many office workers don’t need to be there on the dot at 8:30 in order to be productive, and how many of us would prefer to have an ISP helpdesk that was staffed when we got home and had problems with our computers at 6pm?

Skewing work hours would reduce load on the roads, so rather than having the entire population of Belconnen and Gungahlin on Northbourne avenue at 8:30, they’d be spread out between 7 and 10.

Sorry but those of us that can skew hours most likely alredy do so. It is not work hours that lead to the 8.30 to 9 am squeeze. It’s school hours. We can send our kids off until maybe 8.20 if they can walk or ride there. And then off we go.

Another option of course is to stop expanding the population. As Agent Smith said, “human beings are a disease, a cancer on this planet.”

Other options that are less drastic than sterilising the entire human population would include encouraging workers to explore skewed work hours – some start at 7 and go through to 3, others start at 10 and go through to 6. Many office workers don’t need to be there on the dot at 8:30 in order to be productive, and how many of us would prefer to have an ISP helpdesk that was staffed when we got home and had problems with our computers at 6pm?

Skewing work hours would reduce load on the roads, so rather than having the entire population of Belconnen and Gungahlin on Northbourne avenue at 8:30, they’d be spread out between 7 and 10.

Gungahlin Al9:38 am 28 Oct 09

Interesting editorial in the Times today from Jack Waterford that eventually gets around to dumping on Ainslie people for opposing a road that has always been on the plans and most likely will be desparately needed at some point on the future.

Gungahlin Al9:52 pm 27 Oct 09

Ryan said :

Well there goes a road that could’ve taken a lot of pressure of Majura Rd and Northbourne.

So don’t accept it. Tell them what you think: natcap@natcap.gov.au

It would make a lovely dragstrip.

Well there goes a road that could’ve taken a lot of pressure of Majura Rd and Northbourne.

They should build it – it can mask the noise from all the freight planes that will be landing 24/7…

Gungahlin Al said :

One or the other will be inevitable if we continue to plan for Canberra as a “car city”.

Sorry Al, you forgot the highly likely “do nothing approach” which results in severe traffic woes for south bounders well into the future.

Gungahlin Al4:00 pm 27 Oct 09

CapitalK said :

the very people who will complain ie residents of Watson, Ainslie, Hackett etc are the ones who wil potentially benefit the most – in that they wont have all of Gungahlin and Watson apartments speeding through their streets every morning and evening.

and Wamboin, Bywong, Collector, Goulburn, Sutton, Gundaroo. Oh – and Watson.

Clown Killer1:22 pm 27 Oct 09

I remember when civilisation as we know it was going to end. Children were going to die in their beds. The extinction of the vast majority of our native wildlife was upon us. Then the GDE was built and we never heard another thing about it.

The removal of a planning option, no matter how unpaletable, is a fairly stupid idea. But then again this government(both ACT and Commonwealth) has never been short of stupid ideas.

If they want to save bushland, simple solution – raise the new road upon stilts a la Cahill Expressway in Sydney. Problem solved!!
Or better still – go underground and build a tunnel.
That way little joey and his friends can still come down off the mountain to eat the foodscraps left by the locals.
🙂

the very people who will complain ie residents of Watson, Ainslie, Hackett etc are the ones who wil potentially benefit the most – in that they wont have all of Gungahlin and Watson apartments speeding through their streets every morning and evening.

I’m pretty sure the formal land-use for the road corridor within Campbell (between Vasey and Gellibrand) was changed a few years ago: now ‘open space’??
Or perhaps an opportunity for urban infill?

It appears to track along fire trails or power lines in mostly existing cleared areas so is there much of a “save the mount” argument to be had?

I bet the residents of Rosenthal and Cobby St’s have friends in high places! Sheesh!

I know some people who decided not to buy in Campbell in the 60’s because of Monash Drive.
After the OConnor Ridge protets, it would be a brave politician to push it now.
But every time I look at a map, I feel sorry for all those in Gungahlin who have to drive to Civic etc via Northbourne or very roundabout via GDE or even Majura.
On a map, Monash Drive makes sense.

Gungahlin Al11:25 am 27 Oct 09

At the great peril of aggravating north Canberra folk I realise, there is a school of thought that while ever we still do not have an adequate high-speed public transport solution into and around the town centre, that is not subject to the vagaries of road congestion, then we should oppose removal of the Monash Drive option from planning. That or the trees down Northbourne. One or the other will be inevitable if we continue to plan for Canberra as a “car city”.

Around the mountains is not a viable city bypass option.

But if the ACT Government were to put a dedicated PT route down the middle of Northbourne, then we’d be OK with the change.

Monash Drive is one of those ideas that look good on a map until you add the satellite overlay.

After the Save the Ridge v GDE battles, it was pretty clear that Monash Drive, which is a lot closer to houses (and houses with very vocal and active residents) was never going to happen.

Gary Humphries took the Libs to his last ACT election with a promise to take it off the plan, which indicates the sort of political agony the ACT pollies are anticipating for anyone silly enough to attempt to build it.

Growling Ferret11:13 am 27 Oct 09

Build it. It would stop the rat runners through Ainslie and Hackett – and give a bypass from the city centre reducing traffic on Northborne as well.

Yay!!!

Fantastic news!

Now they just need to remove it from maps, so that people using GPS naavigation stop being directed to turn onto a street that doesn’t exist.

Fantastic news!!!

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