27 April 2009

Truck bypass for Canberra Airport

| johnboy
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The ABC brings word that the gradual unravelling of the traffic snarls surrounding the airport is set to continue with construction scheduled to start in September on a truck bypass for the facility.

    Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron says the truck bypass will help ease traffic congestion around the site.

    “This is good news that the Federal Government has now made this money available, and the ACT Government can move ahead with delivering the project,” he said.

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I dunno if that expansion would be all airport, Cessnas notwithstanding! Looking at how they’re squishing buildings into eveyr square inch along the Pialligo Ave frontage, that Majura Valley frontage is doomed.

dosomethinguseful said :

Because it sound like once Majura Rd is no longer needed they can get rid of it and then expand the ‘International’ airport in that direction

And fair enough. Those Cessnas from Hobart need a good run-up.

Hmmm. Interesting point, Mr/Ms Useful. Hadn’t thought of that, but land grabbing is something they have form for.

dosomethinguseful1:27 pm 28 Apr 09

Felix the Cat said :

Seems like a bit of a waste of money and resources duplicating in part a road that already exists (Majura Rd). Why not just upgrade it to a 4 lane road? How much will it cost ($$, not even taking into account the environmental issue) to reclaim farming land?

Because it sound like once Majura Rd is no longer needed they can get rid of it and then expand the ‘International’ airport in that direction

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy10:07 am 28 Apr 09

If they could build a proper dual lane section to join the Monaro to Majura rd (via the bit past Duntroon that already exists), they could probably get away with just building a few decent overtaking lanes on Majura rd. Much of Majura rd is uphill (although you wouldn’t necessarily notice this). It’s not a problem for most cars, but loaded trucks can struggle to maintain 90km/h along there. You also get the odd car (maybe with caravan) wanting to do 70km/h. If we removed the choke point past Duntroon and made it easier to overtake up Majura, I think traffic would flow significantly better than it currently does.

Another interesting thing is the mystery lights that are sitting just before one of the airport roundabouts. They only apply to traffic heading from teh city toward Qbn, there aren’t any on the other side of the road, so they’re not for BBP staff trying to walk to Rodneys.

The lights aren’t on at the moment, and one local speculant has suggested that it might be for situations where BBP traffic are trying to exit on that roundabout, but are being prevented by traffic heading to NSW, so the lights might be activated to give the BBP people a go.

These lights weren’t in the original plan, but given this section of the project was run by the airport, I guess it didn’t need to be. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re used.

You really have to wonder about some of the “improvements” they have made, in particular the removal of the roundabout where this new extension will travel over. Probably would have not have been needed if the fly-over was built first.

at some point, that mess around Pialligo/Moreshed/Fairbairn was going to be a sort-of ring-road, with traffic going in one direction. I’m not sure if they retained that in teh final plan or not.

This mess, it should be remembered, did not exist until Snow built a CBD at the airport.

Well the monaro hwy to federal hwy is needed, I doubt the Government has used their brain and included the duplication of the Monaro Hwy bridge over Canberra Avenue in the works which should have been done when the original duplication was done.

The extra extension of Morsehead drive between the Monaro Hwy and new Fairbairn Ave (i.e. the yellow part in the middle) seems to be a pointless waste, it doesn’t go anywhere!

Felix the Cat8:04 pm 27 Apr 09

ant said :

I had a look at the map. Tehy seem to be talking about a whole new road, which will be a northern extension to the Monaro Highway. It seems to be the new bit they put along Dairy Flat, and rather than linking up with Majura Road as it does currently, it seems to cut through the Duntroon playing fields, go through the Fairbairn horse paddocks, and up the Majura Valley. So it appears that what they’re doing is making a more direct route from the Federal Hwy to the Monaro, missing Majura and the roads around Moreshead and Pialligo.

Two roads up Majura Valley. What a shame. Carving up more productive farming land.

Seems like a bit of a waste of money and resources duplicating in part a road that already exists (Majura Rd). Why not just upgrade it to a 4 lane road? How much will it cost ($$, not even taking into account the environmental issue) to reclaim farming land?

Wait, you think they built most of the GDE in 12 months??! They started construction somewhere around mid to late 2005. You couldn’t drive on it until the later half of 2007

Don’t forget that construction was put on hold by the Greens and NIMBYS. Stage 1 was opened in Dec 06 and Stage 2 only about 6 months later.

dvaey said :

The GDE was expected to take 15 months to complete (from memory), most of it was open within 12 (except for final parts of glenloch, which were open just not finished).

And how can it be ‘built in close to the time they said it would’, when theyre only just starting stage 2, before stage 1 is finished (at least, from what I read on here anyway, I dont venture to that side of town much).

The ACT government split the costs of the flyover with the airport, so I don’t know how you can extrapolate that the “feds” are giving money to the airport.

From the article linked (second paragraph):

>> Federal Government funding for the project is part of a national $26 billion infrastructure scheme.

I extrapolated that ‘Federal Government funding’ = ‘feds giving airport money’. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.

Wait, you think they built most of the GDE in 12 months??! They started construction somewhere around mid to late 2005. You couldn’t drive on it until the later half of 2007, and they’re currently working on the second lane now. Even if you don’t include the duplication, it is a minimum of 2 years. They started clearing trees near the airport for the flyover early 2008, and they opened it a few months ago. Hardly the “last few years”.

“I extrapolated that ‘Federal Government funding’ = ‘feds giving airport money’. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.”

The truck bypass doesn’t have anything to do with the airport. It will help ease traffic along Majura road (the monaro highway extension is proposed to join up with majura road, not the federal highway) and the Monaro highway, not traffic going to the airport, like the flyover did. The feds are giving money to the ACT gov to build the road, not the airport

arescarti42 said :

Didnt we just wait a few years for the last ‘bypass’, which is now ‘completed’ even though its not?

Also, why the heck are the feds giving the airport money.. shouldnt it work the other way around? Not like they didnt make any money from Brindabella Park (whos occupants are the big cause of the traffic anyway).

Hardly. Unlike the GDE, the Airport bypass was actually built in close to the time they said it would, and didn’t blow out in costs. Also unlike the GDE, the “truck bypass” part of the scheme has always been planned, and is a completely separate piece of road from the airport flyover.

The GDE was expected to take 15 months to complete (from memory), most of it was open within 12 (except for final parts of glenloch, which were open just not finished).

And how can it be ‘built in close to the time they said it would’, when theyre only just starting stage 2, before stage 1 is finished (at least, from what I read on here anyway, I dont venture to that side of town much).

The ACT government split the costs of the flyover with the airport, so I don’t know how you can extrapolate that the “feds” are giving money to the airport.

From the article linked (second paragraph):

>> Federal Government funding for the project is part of a national $26 billion infrastructure scheme.

I extrapolated that ‘Federal Government funding’ = ‘feds giving airport money’. Seems pretty straight-forward to me.

Just what I was wondering, Sepi. Snow’s 24 hour a day freight hub will require LOTS of trucks, 24 hours a day. This just seems to be linking the Federal Hwy with the Monaro Hwy, seamlessly.

Majura Road is chockers with Gunghalin people heading to Brindabella park (airport), and the southside. In the mornings, I’m still seeing it a very slow crawl for those going to the airport. Coming in from the east, the bottleneck for us seems to have eased right up… until you get to Russell Roundabout which is log jammed in several directions.

And the Federal gov’t did kick in quite a lot of money for roadworks around the airport. The flyover is just one tiny part of the whole. From memory, during the election, Major Kelly promised funds for the Monaro bits.

I don’t get why this is called a truck bypass. Can anyone use it?

And isn’t the airport aiming to encourage trucks, with their 24 hour freight hub plan?

dvaey said :

This sounds like GDE. Spend lots of time and money building a road, then realise after its finished that its not suitable and it needs expansion/redevelopment.

Didnt we just wait a few years for the last ‘bypass’, which is now ‘completed’ even though its not?

Also, why the heck are the feds giving the airport money.. shouldnt it work the other way around? Not like they didnt make any money from Brindabella Park (whos occupants are the big cause of the traffic anyway).

Hardly. Unlike the GDE, the Airport bypass was actually built in close to the time they said it would, and didn’t blow out in costs. Also unlike the GDE, the “truck bypass” part of the scheme has always been planned, and is a completely separate piece of road from the airport flyover.

The ACT government split the costs of the flyover with the airport, so I don’t know how you can extrapolate that the “feds” are giving money to the airport.

I had a look at the map. Tehy seem to be talking about a whole new road, which will be a northern extension to the Monaro Highway. It seems to be the new bit they put along Dairy Flat, and rather than linking up with Majura Road as it does currently, it seems to cut through the Duntroon playing fields, go through the Fairbairn horse paddocks, and up the Majura Valley. So it appears that what they’re doing is making a more direct route from the Federal Hwy to the Monaro, missing Majura and the roads around Moreshead and Pialligo.

Two roads up Majura Valley. What a shame. Carving up more productive farming land.

This sounds like GDE. Spend lots of time and money building a road, then realise after its finished that its not suitable and it needs expansion/redevelopment.

Didnt we just wait a few years for the last ‘bypass’, which is now ‘completed’ even though its not?

Also, why the heck are the feds giving the airport money.. shouldnt it work the other way around? Not like they didnt make any money from Brindabella Park (whos occupants are the big cause of the traffic anyway).

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