7 August 2024

Sulwood Drive reopening delayed

| Ian Bushnell
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The Sulwood Drive roadworks will improve access to Mount Taylor Reserve. Photo: ACT Government.

The reopening of Sulwood Drive in Kambah between Inkster Street and Livingston Avenue has been delayed until some time in September.

A project to improve access to Mount Taylor Nature Reserve from Sulwood Drive has been underway since early May and was due to be completed by 13 August.

A kilometre of Sulwood Drive will be rehabilitated, about 500 metres on either side of the Mannheim Street intersection, but Transport Canberra and City Services says crews encountered conditions underneath the original road surface, which means further work is required before a new surface can be laid.

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Sulwood Drive links Drakeford and Athllon Drives, and the closure has caused significant disruption for southside drivers.

TCCS said crews will need to excavate further and bring in new materials to build up the road before the new pavement can be laid.

It says it was not possible to predict this would happen as site inspections cannot fully determine what will be found underground.

“This means the new road will have a strong foundation suitable for the level of use, including volume and type of traffic, that is seen on the road,” TCCS says.

“It will be able to serve the community well for many years into the future without the disruptive issues it has experienced previously.”

TCCS says good progress has been made on electrical work for new traffic lights and streetlights, installation of new streetlight poles, pouring a new concrete kerb and gutters, new entry and exit points for the Mount Taylor carpark, pavement widening for the carpark exit and new right turn lane into the carpark, installation of stormwater infrastructure and starting path works near the intersection of Mannheim Street.

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The project will provide a new 4 km long and 3-metre wide asphalt, off-road path plus safety barriers on the southern side of Sulwood Drive between Drakeford Drive and Athllon Drive.

Along with the new road pavement, a new concrete path is being built on Mannheim Street between Mackay Crescent and Sulwood Drive.

Two raised pedestrian crossings on Inkster Street and Livingston Avenue have already been completed, with associated streetlighting and traffic lights at the intersection of Mannheim Street and Sulwood Drive, including pedestrian signals.

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Vincent Jessop8:04 am 09 Aug 24

What a joke, road core sampling only a few feet, the whole road has been falling apart for years now, redo the whole thing with dual lanes. Other countries would have this complete in a month max. As usual the government couldn’t handle a chook raffle. Rename it as the Sulwood Patchwork Quilt Goat Trail. This Capital City is a embarrassment to our visitors.

I wonder if they’ll install all the pedestrian signal activation buttons on the wrong side of the path like they did at the new traffic lights in Deakin… perhaps they need some local designers that understand that traffic travels on the left in Australia.

it was not possible to predict this would happen as site inspections cannot fully determine what will be found underground.

Gregg Heldon3:15 pm 07 Aug 24

Not surprised. It’s an infrastructure project and, as we all know, this Government is useless at them.
It was originally built on a dirt track. Any research would have told them that before building startd.

September will come and go…. and still no completion. No surprises here.
As a southsider, I have long learnt that there is no urgency to start or complete projects down here.
It’s as if they think “if people see works being done, then they will be statisfied and think we care about them. So stretch out those works for as long as possible. Saves starting new ones.”

Election coming…… start clearing your desk Mr Barr.

Hardly surprising with this crowd. Still waiting for Athllon drive to be duplicated. I reckon I’ll be 6 feet under before they turn one bit of dirt.

Let’s be honest, considering this labor governments track record, we should not be surprised.

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