21 July 2009

Traffic jam on Drakeford Drive Tuesday 21st July evening

| laughtong
Join the conversation
32

I have not long got home after taking 45minutes to travel from Tuggeranong to Banks due to the huge traffic jam caused by the Tharwa Drive duplication roadworks. Not happy as this appeared to be caused by witches hats blocking off one lane of Drakeford Drive near the Johnson Drive roundabout. No obvious reason for the witches hats.

It appeared that Drakeford Drive was backed up from Johnson Drive up as far as Erindale Drive. Queuing around the Isabella Drive intersection to exit Tuggeranong.

Any one else get stuck in this? Any further information? I am hoping we are not going to cop this every evening, on top of the morning traffic jam. It is taking me 30 minutes to get to work in the mornings, leaving before 7:30am

Join the conversation

32
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

WanniAss said :

You could always go via Point Hut and the Cotter. It may not be quicker but at least there is no hold up

Probably would of been quicker yesterday. It takes me around 45-50 minutes to go from Mt Stromlo turn off to Point Hut Crossing via Cotter Dam.

What I don’t get is why is Drakeford Drive 3 lanes (each way) from Kambah to Oxley, but 2 lanes (each way) from Oxley to Conder & from north of Kambah & along William Hovell/Gungahlin Drive/Parkes Way? When even John Gorton Drive (through Molonglo) will be 2 lanes (each way) from the beginning, with plans to add an extra lane (each way) as Molonglo grows. Also why is Cotter Road having a bike lane added & not being fully duplicated.

30 mins to get me to work.

Cry me a river

“Ditto about knees and ankles driving a manual in queued slow traffic. Not good. “

Tell me you are joking. You would bend your knees/ankles more walking 100m. If you get knee/ankle problems from driving a manual……..oh God…..I am speechless

laughtong said :

Pleased to report that there were no problems this evening. Home in 10 minutes.
The information about the contractors not being authorized to close the lane in peak hours matches what I was told earlier today from Roads ACT.

Ditto about knees and ankles driving a manual in queued slow traffic. Not good.

Still, roll on the completion of this duplication which was going to be done 6 years ago, then the money got swiped up to the GDE. This traffic jam illustrated beautifully how badly the duplication is needed.

There is no alternate route for those living in the Lanyon Valley (as noted above).
The Johnson drive/Drakeford drive roundabout is used by residents of Calwell plus Condor, Banks and Gordon. For all but a few there is no way to avoid that intersection.

You could always go via Point Hut and the Cotter. It may not be quicker but at least there is no hold up

benoncehobbled said :

She said the contractors were not authorised to close the lanes, especially not at peak hour

Ah. The Contractors Did It.

You can see the attraction for a government of having contractors do this kind of work.

I wonder if the contractors knew they weren’t authorised to close that lane?

Pleased to report that there were no problems this evening. Home in 10 minutes.
The information about the contractors not being authorized to close the lane in peak hours matches what I was told earlier today from Roads ACT.

Ditto about knees and ankles driving a manual in queued slow traffic. Not good.

Still, roll on the completion of this duplication which was going to be done 6 years ago, then the money got swiped up to the GDE. This traffic jam illustrated beautifully how badly the duplication is needed.

There is no alternate route for those living in the Lanyon Valley (as noted above).
The Johnson drive/Drakeford drive roundabout is used by residents of Calwell plus Condor, Banks and Gordon. For all but a few there is no way to avoid that intersection.

I went past a little while ago, the lanes were kept open on the Bonython side of Woodcock Drive. It looks like the lanes were temporarily closed for work to be carried out on the old median strip.

Thoroughly Smashed4:53 pm 22 Jul 09

benoncehobbled said :

I just complained to Canberra Connect about the traffic jam. The very helpful lady on the other end of the line explained that she had been briefed about the situation earlier in the day and to expect complaints – they had already had several. She said the contractors were not authorised to close the lanes, especially not at peak hour, and that it would not happen again. We’ll wait and see . . .

Oh dear…

Well that answers that question doesn’t it.

benoncehobbled said :

I just complained to Canberra Connect about the traffic jam. The very helpful lady on the other end of the line explained that she had been briefed about the situation earlier in the day and to expect complaints – they had already had several. She said the contractors were not authorised to close the lanes, especially not at peak hour, and that it would not happen again. We’ll wait and see . . .

lane was still blocked off this morning on the way in, so hopefully they have been hard at work today in the rain :-/

benoncehobbled3:27 pm 22 Jul 09

I just complained to Canberra Connect about the traffic jam. The very helpful lady on the other end of the line explained that she had been briefed about the situation earlier in the day and to expect complaints – they had already had several. She said the contractors were not authorised to close the lanes, especially not at peak hour, and that it would not happen again. We’ll wait and see . . .

Ha ha ha. Heading South last night, I approached it backing up to Noorooma Street Isabella Plains. Thinking I would be clever, I turned off here cutting through Isabella Plains to continue onto Lanyon. Getting stuck in another traffic jam on Johnson Drive, the car that was next to me before I turned off Drakeford Drive, passed me on Johnson Drive. I gained probably close to minus 15 minutes. A warning to others….don’t short cut through Isabella Plains, its not that scenic !

As for taking a different route, Drakeford forms a spine through tuggers, according to the map. workmate lives in Gordon, and apparently the problem wasn’t just navigating Drakeford; crossing it was as big a problem, due the endearing Canberra habit of queuing across intersections. So cross roads blocked up too.

We pored over the map in the yellow pages, and there did not seem to be any way to Gordon without hitting Drakeford around the critical spot.

Thoroughly Smashed2:25 pm 22 Jul 09

ant said :

The fact that witches’ hats were out with no apparent reason being a case in point.

Do we actually know that this was the case, other than laughtong’s speculation?

Igglepiggle said :

People whinge for ages about the single lanes and traffic jams, so when the government if finally forking out the cash to fix it, they then bitch about having to put up with roadworks! Priceless!

This.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

So go a different way.

FTR, pretty much all the different ways you could go to try and get around it end up back on this road or at this intersection, barring driving down to Tharwa or somewhere and looping back.

As I said last time someone bitched on here about the roadworks: suck it up. People whinge for ages about the single lanes and traffic jams, so when the government if finally forking out the cash to fix it, they then bitch about having to put up with roadworks! Priceless!
Go and drive in Sydney for a while if you want to have real traffic problems. otherwise put up with it til its done then appreciate the new road. FFS.

PickedANickname12:56 pm 22 Jul 09

I was stuck in it, too. My take on the witches hats that seemed to have no purpose was to get traffic to merge together before hitting the single lane roundabout at Tharwa Drive and Drakeford Drive. I would imagine that it would be worse trying to merge two lanes and the other traffic also coming from Tharwa Drive at the one roundabout.

A lady at work reckoned she spent 1.5 hours in it! And her ankles and feet ache from them being locked in limited motion while crawling forward (manuals are not so much fun in traffic jams).

It seems to me that every time ACT do roadworks (which is often contracted out) the mg’t of traffic is appalling. Teh mess around the airport is what I’m experiencing most often, and soon it’ll be the Russell Kings Ave roundabout works, and they seem to give zero thought to how heavy traffic is to be handled.

The fact that witches’ hats were out with no apparent reason being a case in point.

The Fairbairn/Morshead complex right now suffers from lock-up as intersections reach capacity and traffic backs up and queues across the previous/next intersection.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:24 pm 22 Jul 09

So go a different way.

There was a traffic jam. It cleared.

The life continued.

…yeah but it looks like this will happen every day for months given that roundabout is about to be overhauled.

“sigh”

richardh9935 said :

….So you admit you don’t have enough coping strategies?

You could:
Talk to the person next to you.
Turn on a radio.
Get out a pencil and paper, and draw something.
Plan dinner.
Plan dinner out.
Look at the scenery.
Count the cars around you.
Categorise them by colour and make.
Count the people around you.
And you can do even more on a bus.
Categorise them by colour and make…..

Don’t some Canberra drivers do this anyway, when traffic is moving normally??

Oh and lol @ Mike Bessenger! Well said!

Aw the joys of being Australian.
When I was living in America it was like that on a good day. =)
You find things to do while sitting in traffic.
However it’s amazing
just how long it takes to fix a km or two of road. I think there are like
two guys working on it this whole last year. Maybe they could Step it up
a little.

Mike Bessenger10:06 am 22 Jul 09

richardh9935 said :

….So you admit you don’t have enough coping strategies?

You could:
Talk to the person next to you.

It’s canberra buddy, only one person per car thankyou.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:39 am 22 Jul 09

There was a traffic jam. It cleared.

The life continued.

was especially good when i got to the end of the left lane, and the P-plated Commodore in the right lane decided i was not merging in front of him, so he sat on the bumper of the car in front and revved his engine.

ahh the lane was ending knob-jockey, i wasnt trying to push in in front of you.

I love my motorbike in situations like these.

richardh99357:31 am 22 Jul 09

….So you admit you don’t have enough coping strategies? You could:
Talk to the person next to you.
Turn on a radio.
Get out a pencil and paper, and draw something.
Plan dinner.
Plan dinner out.
Look at the scenery.
Count the cars around you.
Categorise them by colour and make.
Count the people around you.
And you can do even more on a bus.
Categorise them by colour and make…..

I was wondering what that was for – it was banked up much longer than usual – thanks to those who let me out at Noorooma to turn right nice to see some generosity. There were lots of Callwell folks rat running through Isabella tonight, I am sure that will continue.

gah, because of it, traffic was almost at a standhill on johnston drive, and even continuing to ashley drive tonight…

epic fail guys.. 🙁

Maybe cut through Bonython instead?

Yeah, I was caught in this too. Ironically, the outer lane was going much faster despite it being the lane that ended because of the witches hats. This also blocked traffic trying to cross over Drakeford to continue down Woodcock.

Mike Bessenger9:28 pm 21 Jul 09

Took about 15 minutes by bicycle, t’was bliss.

I was stuck in a bus & it took the bus 30 minutes to leave Tuggeranong Interchange & to get to Covenant College.\

You may of noticed that part of the new southside lanes opened today, but for finish off work to be carried out on the intersection, southbound lanes on Drakeford Drive have to merge into one lane before the roundabout. So because it was a continuous flow from Drakeford Drive entering the roundabout, Johnson Drive traffic have a long wait for a gap to open up, so then Johnson Drive traffic builds up.

It looks like this may stay the case for at least the end of the week, bit hopefully things don’t stay like this until the road is competed in mid to late August (my guess). Probably best for Lanyon Drive traffic to use Monaro Highway/Tharwa Drive. With only traffic going from Woden/Tuggeranong to use Drakeford Drive.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.