10 May 2014

Roadworks on Streeton Drive

| tobefair
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streeton

The ongoing roadworks along Cotter Road and Streeton Drive have become a very familiar headache on my morning commute. The recent changes, limited signage and fairly death defying redirect of traffic seems particularly dangerous though.

Is anyone else having issues with it? Makes me wonder what sort of guidelines they have in how they guide traffic around works.

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Good outcome!

Also, my last message didn’t show up properly, no doubt because I used arrows and dashes to illustrate what a variable message board would display. Was intended to read with a left arrow for unwin place traffic and a right arrow for streeton drive traffic. But i guess my point got across anyhow 🙂

RB78 said :

I went through there on Thursday in the morning peak – didn’t have any issues, but it was peak and I was able to see where to go.

What I’d suggest they need is one of those portable variable message boards, alternating between ” “

Or, at the least, those heavy duty yellow cardboard signs printed up with the same, and affixed to poles in advance of the intersection, and affixed to that ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign in the photo.

Good suggestion. The directional signs went up sometime between 9am and 5 pm on Sunday. Power of an anonymous website is shown yet again.

I went through there on Thursday in the morning peak – didn’t have any issues, but it was peak and I was able to see where to go.

What I’d suggest they need is one of those portable variable message boards, alternating between ” ”

Or, at the least, those heavy duty yellow cardboard signs printed up with the same, and affixed to poles in advance of the intersection, and affixed to that ‘ROAD CLOSED’ sign in the photo.

I went left when I first came across it due to seeing the prominent left arrow and a steady stream of cars coming from the right. It was in no way obvious that you could in fact go right without having a head on with the oncoming traffic as the double lines continued straight ahead. Looking at the photo now I can see double lines also branching to the right but I don’t remember seeing them last week (they may well have been there though!).

Lots of cars followed me to the left as well so I felt bad when I realised that I had stuffed up and we all had to do a u turn to get back to where we needed to go!

So yes I would say very poor traffic management…

The way to Weston Crik is to go right. Shame he/she didn’t get a shot of it at night, with an SUV emblazoned with foglights coming from the opposite direction. Makes it very difficult to see the centre lines. Over to you bigfeet.

Davo has just sent in a picture of the roadworks in question on Streeton Drive (now included at the top of this post). If you were travelling towards the “road closed” sign would you go left or right?

switch said :

Alderney said :

I mean, how hard can driving be? One just has to stay on the black bit! Has there been evidence of many drivers failing to keep their vehicle on the road? If we are that distracted by a bit of work going on to our right or left we probably shouldn’t be on the road at all.

Have you forgotten some of the more spectacular Monday Parking efforts already?

What do we want?
Monday parking!
When do we want it?
Now! (or by Monday at the latest…)

Alderney said :

I mean, how hard can driving be? One just has to stay on the black bit! Has there been evidence of many drivers failing to keep their vehicle on the road? If we are that distracted by a bit of work going on to our right or left we probably shouldn’t be on the road at all.

Have you forgotten some of the more spectacular Monday Parking efforts already?

Leo61 said :

Yes it’s more difficult to negotiate than it was previously but at least now drivers can’t speed. That whole section has been sign posted at 40 km since the work began and very few drivers bothered slowing down.
Now there is no choice.

I can’t comment on these particular road works, but what is it with the majority of work sites and the reduced speed limit?

I understand this while there a workers on or near the road or, as seems to be the case at this site, there has been a lot of realignment while the work progresses (or not as the case may be), but at Erindale they’ve reduced the speed limit from 80 to 50 at all times and there is no work taking place on the actual road you drive on.

I mean, how hard can driving be? One just has to stay on the black bit! Has there been evidence of many drivers failing to keep their vehicle on the road? If we are that distracted by a bit of work going on to our right or left we probably shouldn’t be on the road at all.

Yes it’s more difficult to negotiate than it was previously but at least now drivers can’t speed. That whole section has been sign posted at 40 km since the work began and very few drivers bothered slowing down.
Now there is no choice.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:29 am 09 May 14

OpenYourMind said :

I was behind a big Toyota Kluger 4×4 going through the chicanes. As the driver approached the drop off (gutter height) he/she slowed to about 3km/h. In a Kluger!!!!

Kluger’s aren’t real 4x4s, they’re just big soft-roaders. Toyotas real offroaders are hilux, prado and landcruiser (and that retro FJ cruiser thing).

magiccar9 said :

Hosinator said :

Not at all, I dodge all the road works by riding a bike to work on the great shared paths we have in Weston Creek.

You ride on paths? You’re one in a million.

You need to get out more.

magiccar9 said :

You ride on paths? You’re one in a million.

Surely that would have to be 1 in 375,000?

Hosinator said :

Not at all, I dodge all the road works by riding a bike to work on the great shared paths we have in Weston Creek.

You ride on paths? You’re one in a million.

OpenYourMind said :

I was behind a big Toyota Kluger 4×4 going through the chicanes. As the driver approached the drop off (gutter height) he/she slowed to about 3km/h. In a Kluger!!!!

Um, yeah. Doesn’t matter how high or low your car is, that sort of drop off can break rims, throw out wheel alignments and do other major damage if you don’t slow down. Granted it’s a little excessive, but I’ll admit I would do exactly the same thing.

OpenYourMind10:54 pm 08 May 14

I was behind a big Toyota Kluger 4×4 going through the chicanes. As the driver approached the drop off (gutter height) he/she slowed to about 3km/h. In a Kluger!!!!

FourFour said :

They seemed to have completed this section – then they re-did it (so I’m assuming they buggered something up)

Maybe not them, but a previous Government from the 1920’s (how far back can you blame a previous Government though). Where the water people placed some cement casing around a high pressure water pipe. Now this pipe casing has been found while doing this realignment & was on no maps from 1923 to present (how lucky were they when then originally built Dixon Drive). This casing can’t be moved/removed, so now the road has to go over it at whatever distance has to be kept between a road surface & water pipe thingy. Which might explain the height difference involved in changing to the new northbound carriage of Streeton Drive. I’ve pieced some of that information from the Weston Creek Community Council website at http://www.wccc.com.au/wccc/index.php/main/

Not at all, I dodge all the road works by riding a bike to work on the great shared paths we have in Weston Creek.

I have been meaning to ring ACT roads and provide feedback about the whole debacle. Try doing the right turn into Heyson st from Streeton Dr safely at 8 am.

jett18 said :

it’s not helped by the fact that for the better part of three months, there seemed to be no progress!

The diversions along Streeton Dve do seem unusually difficult to navigate.

No progress for months is bang-on target for Cbr roadworks, though 😐

I agree – it’s a nightmare. When I went through on the weekend they had changed the configuration again – but this time included a massive hump to drive up (honestly our other car is pretty low – and I think I would genuinely struggle to get up that connecting ‘hump’).

They seemed to have completed this section – then they re-did it (so I’m assuming they buggered something up)

+1
This intersection is an absolute nightmare, particularly driving home at night– the redirect is unsafe and if you are not familiar with the twists and turns it feels like you are heading for a head on with the opposite traffic.
Also, it’s not helped by the fact that for the better part of three months, there seemed to be no progress!

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