5 July 2011

Snowy road closures

| johnboy
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snow

Territory And Municipal Services are warning of road closures in the mountains.

The ACT Government wishes to advise motorists and other road users that Boboyan Road and Corin Dam Road (between Corin Dam and the Square Rock car park) are closed until further notice due to adverse weather conditions.

Barriers as well as warning and diversion signs will be erected to alert people of the closure.

UPDATE: More closures now announced:

The ACT Government wishes to advise motorists and other road users that Mt Franklin Road and Bendora Road are closed until further notice due to adverse weather conditions.

Boboyan Road and Corin Dam Road (between Corin Dam and the Square Rock car park) remain closed.

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Yeah fair point, maybe we should just do that then.

This is suggesting rain up to 1800 metres this weekend so may be cr.p around here anyway

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN60801/IDN60801.95925.shtml

Demosthenes, going to Thredbo is a waste of time as there is no toboggin slope for the kids.

We went to Perisher last Friday & it was superb. Did not cost much, 1/2 a tank of juice, the park fee & some food. We also hired some snow gear for tha kids & toboggins before we left. If you do it this way it wont be “over priced” & your kids will have a great time on the nicely groomed toboggin slope away from the road.

It also only took us a little over 2 hours to get there but then we live south too. The drive to Mt Franklin is over an hour for bugger all gain anyway.

I just dont get how people think enjoying the snow is so expensive, if you go unprepared & buy everything there then yes it is but if you are self sufficient then no its not.

Trust me, go to Perisher. It is bumper year & there will be enough snow to even satisfy you.

What, so because of that, they just close everything off to protect ignorant peasants from themselves? Last I checked, Australia was not unusual in getting some snow around the place. Oh hang on, there are these countries called Canada, USA, etc that seem to get by quite happily. Sure it’s part of their culture but even so. I don’t get why just never having any meaningful information and closing off the Brindabellas with a ‘nothing to see here, move along to Thredbo’ attitude is very helpful. All I want to do is go for a walk up there with a few friends, not go cross country skiing and camp up there.

totally understandable. When they leave the roads open clowns go up there in 2wd and get stuck needing tow trucks etc and there is no phone reception up near the Corin Forest. I got caught there once and only just managed to “slide” out of the place after a sudden snow fall covered the road and made it extremely dangerous.

It’s damn frustrating trying to get any information out of our parks services. I just want to go up to the snow and play around for a bit without having to drive three hours up to some over priced mush up at Thredbo just for a bit of day fun. The best I can get is BOM that unfortunately is predicting snow only above 1800 metres this weekend. Not good?

http://www.bom.gov.au/act/forecasts/mountginini.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDN60801/IDN60801.95925.shtml

I looked at the CT site half an hour ago, and they were quoting the BOM forcaster as saying that if the winds went above 80 km/hr, they’d close Northbourne. At that point, the Airport was registering 85 km/hr gusts.

I just went back to the CT site to see if there was an update, and they had the same story, only now the BOM forcaster was saying if gusts got to 100 km/hr they’d close Northbourne. Ha!

Winds out here at the airport are still gusting savage, I notice on the 24 hour obs, the wind gusted up at dawn, and so perhaps the setting sun is causing it to gust up. Hope this doesn’t go all night.

Well I’ve just had word from a friend that the police have started blocking some parts of northbourne, up closer to Dickson.

Have fun Peak Hour Traffic! 🙂

re Northbourne, looked out the window in Civic and no closure.

re the snowy roads, instead of sticking up a road closed sign put up a “chains required – except 4WD” sign.

EvanJames said :

grundy said :

I havn’t seen a warning posted anywhere or warnings of winds stronger than what we’ve already had today…

No, me neither. We are having 85 km/hr gusts at the airport, and the wind is shrieking like the fiends of hell. They didn’t forcast that. (actually they seldom forcast fiends of hell, to be fair).

Where have you been?

http://the-riotact.com/blizzard-conditions/49460

grundy said :

I havn’t seen a warning posted anywhere or warnings of winds stronger than what we’ve already had today…

No, me neither. We are having 85 km/hr gusts at the airport, and the wind is shrieking like the fiends of hell. They didn’t forcast that. (actually they seldom forcast fiends of hell, to be fair).

Classified said :

The roads need to be closed because most people struggle to control a vehicle beyond ‘point and squirt’ these days.

Precisely. People seem to have no idea how to actually drive their car these days. Many people actually, really think that you need 4WD to drive on a gravel road. I am not making this up. Add a bit of snow to the equation and they think the world is ending.

I’ve only ever used chains once (I own them), but always carry them if there’s a chance of snow. With decent tyres and some idea of how to drive, you can negotiate rather a lot of snow. Done it many times. Ice, however, I hate the stuff. Need chains and studs and a pack horse dragging your car along. And you still might go into the creek. And 4WD won’t save you.

Interesting about Northbourne Ave, I wonder if it’s a cunning ploy to get the residents to agree to their knocking down the trees? It worked with kangaroos…

Northbourne Ave closure: Just heard third-hand that the barricades are out and that police are in position. But the road has NOT been actually closed yet

Jivrashia said :

Did someone read or heard something about possibility of (so it hasn’t happened yet) Northbourne Ave closure due to high winds and threat of trees falling on to the road?

Yep, a friend at work said his girlfriend was sent hom from work early to avoid any northbourne closures.
Supposedly her boss is a friend of a cop.

So serious friend of a friend of a friend thing going on here…
I ‘tweeted’ ACTPol_Traffic for clarification but havn’t heard back.

I havn’t seen a warning posted anywhere or warnings of winds stronger than what we’ve already had today…

The roads need to be closed because most people struggle to control a vehicle beyond ‘point and squirt’ these days.

creative_canberran4:10 pm 05 Jul 11

GBT said :

How rude of them to try and save people’s lives who are stupid enough to drive in snowy/icy conditions without snow chains (of which I’m sure there are many.)

Where does TAMS say people WITH snow chains are permitted? They’re not, the closure is total. Meaning even those equipped to go, can’t.
Perhaps people have forgotten that they managed to get concrete trucks up there in the snow in the old days to build the dam and gravity main. The real reason for the closure is the idiots aren’t maintaining the road. Makes me wonder just what the Challet would be for if it still existed?

churl said :

GBT said :

How rude of them to try and save people’s lives who are stupid enough to drive in snowy/icy conditions without snow chains (of which I’m sure there are many.)

Living close enough to see snow on the hills is one of Canberra’s attractions.
A lot of people, e.g. with children, would like to go up and make snowmen etc (rather than drive 3 h to Thredbo etc).
So set rules appropriately (e.g. must carry/use chains beyond this point) rather than close?

Makes sense but then you need someone to enforce those rules. Regardless, I’m sure Pork Hunt didn’t actually go out and measure the snow on the ground and unilaterally decide it was safe levels for all.

GBT said :

How rude of them to try and save people’s lives who are stupid enough to drive in snowy/icy conditions without snow chains (of which I’m sure there are many.)

Living close enough to see snow on the hills is one of Canberra’s attractions.
A lot of people, e.g. with children, would like to go up and make snowmen etc (rather than drive 3 h to Thredbo etc).
So set rules appropriately (e.g. must carry/use chains beyond this point) rather than close?

Did someone read or heard something about possibility of (so it hasn’t happened yet) Northbourne Ave closure due to high winds and threat of trees falling on to the road?

How rude of them to try and save people’s lives who are stupid enough to drive in snowy/icy conditions without snow chains (of which I’m sure there are many.)

Once again the nanny state closes roads with 5 cm of snow on them…

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