Page 3047 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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(c) ensure that temporary traffic management plans reflect the actual risk and requirements for reduced speed, relative to the stage of construction and time of day;
(d) conduct an internal review of speed limit policy in the ACT, especially in suburban areas with a view to simplifying the current arrangements;
(e) request community feedback about poorly signposted roads so that the Government can best comply with Australian Standard 1742; and
(f) address concerns in West Belconnen by:
(i) removing all the speed cushions on Spofforth Street and considering alternative traffic treatments for the street;
(ii) following implementation of subparagraph (f)(i), undertaking an assessment of the traffic impact on surrounding roads and then considering any further traffic treatments, if necessary;
(iii) improving pedestrian access across Starke Street near Kingsford Smith School; and
(iv) ensuring that the roads in question are appropriately policed.
The opposition believes that the government should be doing better at managing the territory’s roads. There are many issues with the government’s decision making, from a highway and arterial road level through to suburban streets.
There are numerous examples where roadworks have been very poorly timed, which has caused considerable frustration to motorists and losses in productivity for Canberrans. Some of the clear examples that spring to mind include, in Belconnen, the roadworks on Barry Drive at the same time as roadworks on Parkes Way; in Charnwood, car park resurfacing, construction of a roundabout and the redevelopment of Woolworths, all at the same time; and in Weston Creek, or affecting Weston Creek residents, the Cotter Road, Streeton Drive, Molonglo and Heysen Street roadworks, all simultaneously. I am sure we have all got stories about or examples of roadworks in Canberra which could and should have been done better.
However the ultimate in poorly timed roadworks is, and perhaps always will be, the Gungahlin Drive extension. That is a road that was meant to be delivered at $53 million and came in years late at a cost of $200 million. Of course, let us not forget that that road took longer to construct than the span of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
One of the particular frustrations that motorists come across is temporary speed limits associated, or meant to be associated, with roadworks. There is, of course, good reason why we have temporary speed limits. Such restrictions are meant to be in place for the safety of both motorists and workers, but also so as not to compromise the actual construction work being undertaken. It is pretty annoying, when you have a sign to slow down to 40 or 60, perhaps hundreds of metres before a site, to drive by and see no construction work actually taking place—see perhaps just a few remnant
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