News & Discussion: Roads & Traffic

[ml69]

So I'm guessing Woollies is talking about transport to the DC, not DC to store stock movement, right?

Yes would have to be.

[adam73837]

I've had a bit of a browse through some of the old posts and it's a bit embarrassing to read some of the things I wrote, but we'll leave that alone I think.
What are people's opinions on this now? With the South Road Superway under construction and the remaining section being studied for an eventual recommendation, it'll be interesting to see how this all progresses over the next year or so.
After spending a bit of time away from looking at freeway interchanges with fascination and awe, my opinion of what Adelaide should do in the future has changed a bit. I still think a North-South Route is essential, considering Adelaide's linear design; but as for things like the old "Modbury Freeway", I personally just don't really think they're that necessary anymore. Other than the N-S Corridor, the only other high speed road corridor that Adelaide should look at is one to divert freight coming from the South East. As I've said, anything else probably isn't worth the money. It'd be better to increase the efficiency and quantity of our PT System for commuters, because during the off-peak periods things are just fine, imo.
Now whether such a previously mentioned, freight diverting, corridor goes through the suburbs or around the Adelaide Hills, I don't really know. What are people's opinions?

[Zills]

Ok, here's what I think. Hopefully this time I don't get called 'ignorant' or 'everything that's wrong with Adelaide'
- I think the city ring route has a lot of room for improvement - grand junction rd, cross road and portrush rd etc. Not for commuters, but for faster freight movements.
- The interchange at the base of the south eastern freeway is still a death trap which needs to be addressed.
- I'd love to see heavy rail for the o-bahn track and also, the long forgotten, 'golden grove extension'. Or, light rail until Aidans subway loop is completed.
- Train/trams - One idea I always thought was a bit counter intuitive. Is this still on the cards, any one?
- One very touchy issue - BAN PARKING IN THE LEFT LANE ON ALL MAIN ROADS - it's a danger to cyclists, a cause of congestion, a hazard for bad drivers and it creates black spots for both pedestrians and drivers. It's also mabo, law, the constitution, the vibe and yea, that's it. It's the vibe!

[drsmith]

The following somewhat bizarre solution has been proposed as a solution to traffic congestion at Port Wakefield,

The State Government initially proposed a detour route for Copper Coast traffic along Ninnes Rd to Lochiel, them down to Two Wells via Balaklava.

Although this route is 25km longer than Highway 1, it avoids the often horrendous holiday traffic build up around Port Wakefield and can save drivers up to an hour’s driving time during peak periods. Traffic signs would encourage drivers to use the other roads.

I'm not surprised local councils aren't supportive of this proposal. It's cheap and nasty.

A potential solution remains an initial build single carriageway national highway bypass of the town with the main convergence point for YP and national highway traffic south of the town where the bypass commences. During busy holiday periods, signalised carriageway metering could be applied to manage traffic flows. A reoriented Balaklava road to just north of the BP could provide heavy transport access from the bypass to/from that service station. The Balaklava Road could cross the bypass in the form of split T's.

A variation of this could be to build the bypass but maintain priority for the existing road through the town. That would at least give national highway traffic an alternative and reduce pressure on the existing road during busy holiday periods. It would also help flood proof the corridor.

Ultimately, a dual carriageway bypass will be required with a grade separated connection to the Copper Coast highway north of the town. Such a design could also directly link the CC Highway directly to a realigned Balaklava Road thus grade separating movements from that side as well. Without grade separation of the conflicting CC highway and national highway movements, safety issues are going to remain. In any form, access to/from the existing BP from a new bypass shouldn't be a problem.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 7292373498

[rev]

I can't wait for local councils to pick weekdays to fix pot holes and do other road maintenance now that the federal government has increased funding for these things to local councils to 700 million dollars, up from 350 million.

[Waewick]

Ok, here's what I think. Hopefully this time I don't get called 'ignorant' or 'everything that's wrong with Adelaide'
- I think the city ring route has a lot of room for improvement - grand junction rd, cross road and portrush rd etc. Not for commuters, but for faster freight movements.
- The interchange at the base of the south eastern freeway is still a death trap which needs to be addressed.
- I'd love to see heavy rail for the o-bahn track and also, the long forgotten, 'golden grove extension'. Or, light rail until Aidans subway loop is completed.
- Train/trams - One idea I always thought was a bit counter intuitive. Is this still on the cards, any one?
- One very touchy issue - BAN PARKING IN THE LEFT LANE ON ALL MAIN ROADS - it's a danger to cyclists, a cause of congestion, a hazard for bad drivers and it creates black spots for both pedestrians and drivers. It's also mabo, law, the constitution, the vibe and yea, that's it. It's the vibe!

post of the year.

The ring route is crap, The Britannia Round abouts quick fix has improved things to a degree but overall its not that much better (could be safer who knows).

They need to look at reducing the number of intersections that the ring route hits and actually making it a route that has right of way/consistency.

On Portrush road, I am subject to crossing it daily, whilst I realise you didn't say commuters but the daily wait to cross it is becoming ridiculous, I realise it is only a short period of time say 7.30-9 and 4.30-6.30 but it needs to be looked at only for the sheer number of cars that use it.

[claybro]

The ring route is crap, The Britannia Round abouts quick fix has improved things to a degree but overall its not that much better (could be safer who knows).

They need to look at reducing the number of intersections that the ring route hits and actually making it a route that has right of way/consistency.

]

The ring route IS crap! I would say they need to look at ELIMINATING intersections, not just reducing them. And while they're about it,,investigate a PROPER second ring route, also without intersections. I know the current priority in South Road, but surely we can start investigating and planning a route.

[[Shuz]]

The idea of a second ring route is just laughable. Where would one even build it? The North South Motorway will require a significant amount of land acquisition as it is. Any secondary ring route will have ten times as much land acquisition. It's just never going to happen.

[claybro]

The idea of a second ring route is just laughable. Where would one even build it? The North South Motorway will require a significant amount of land acquisition as it is. Any secondary ring route will have ten times as much land acquisition. It's just never going to happen.

Thats very negative Shuz.
Most of the capitals have been working on their "middle ring" for a while (as well as thier linear freeways) so why should it be so impossible for Adelaide. Grand Junction road for example is already wide, and traverses some pretty crappy low density residential suburbs and could easily be significantly widened with grade separation at major intersecionts. This route would connect all the middle Northern suburbs and also solve the Gepps Cross problem for North/South traffic.
Granted the Eastern route will prove difficult, but significant widening and tunnelling and grade seperations along Portrush and Cross roads is possible. It may require land aquistion along one entire side to seperate local traffic and thru traffic as is being done on South Road.
Portrush is already a nightmare of trucks labouring up hill or thundering down and is frankly quite dangerous with cars turning in and out of driveways etc.

[rev]

The idea of a second ring route is just laughable. Where would one even build it? The North South Motorway will require a significant amount of land acquisition as it is. Any secondary ring route will have ten times as much land acquisition. It's just never going to happen.

Land acquisition can't be avoided now within suburbia. It's the price we have to pay for short sighted policies of the past.

Grand Junction Road in the north, Hanson Road to David Terrace to East Avenue to tunnel to Marion Road in the west, Cross Road in the south, Portrush Road to Lower Portrush Road/Ascot Avenue to Hamptsead Road in the east. Just a rough idea.

[Goodsy]

Portrush is already a nightmare of trucks labouring up hill or thundering down and is frankly quite dangerous with cars turning in and out of driveways etc.

ban trucks from the Freeway and Portrush road entirely.

build a new freeway that branches from the Dukes highway at Tailem Bend through to Strathalbyn and Mclaren Vale and connect to the end of the Southern Expressway

[Nowlistencarefully]

The intersection of Nottage Tce and Main Nth Rd has land currently being redeveloped on the Western side. Part of this could've been used to widen the intersection. If only they could also remove the temporary parking on the eastern side, south bound on Main Nth Rd from the intersection to Robe Tce. Making it 3 lanes instead of just 2 (with cars cutting across each other) outside the morning rush hour.

[drsmith]

An additional comment I meant to make in relation to Port Wakefield is that judging by the images in the article above, it's the capacity of the road through the town that's a bigger constraint than the intersection north of the town.

As this appears to be a general road user's whinge thread, I'll also comment that the awfulness of some of the sealed roads on Yorke Peninsula is beyond description. The east side coast road is one of the better roads but even with that, Pine Point should be bypassed and the X road just to the west of Port Vincent should be reconfigured into two T's as a similar intersection has been near Stansbury.

[Waewick]

The idea of a second ring route is just laughable. Where would one even build it? The North South Motorway will require a significant amount of land acquisition as it is. Any secondary ring route will have ten times as much land acquisition. It's just never going to happen.

I want the 1st ring route to actually be a ring route before any talk of a second one.

[Patrick_27]

Our city ring-route should be freeway grade.

If it were, there would be opportunity to bring the South Eastern Freeway into the city, and re-open the idea of a Modbury Freeway (with allocated bus-lanes).

Whilst Greenhill and Fullarton Roads have the width for a freeway grade road, the current ring-route is for the most part a mess. West Terrace for example... Need I say more?