[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[Norman]

As always, feedback is welcomed!

Keep left unless overtaking

But seriously, lane discipline in this video is shocking - I'd wager that the same video taken in any European country would be entirely different. Hopefully when the N-S motorway is completed the government of the day will invest a few bucks into a good old fashioned public information campaign on how to use the bloody thing...

Cheers for the great video though Did you have a reason for the journey, or just 'because'?

Well, I try to record the journey every one or two years to show the progress of the projects along the corridor. There is a similar video from 2017 on my channel if you want to compare.

[TorrensSA]

The 2017 and 2020 drive throughs both took 66min, so the new road doesn't seem to save time in light traffic?. But the 2020 traffic looked heavier than the 2017 traffic, so maybe a 5 or 10 min saving and in peak this would probably double, add 6+ min once the middle section is done. The real point is how long would it take Gawler to Old Noarlunga without freeways - I just did the journey planner on Google Maps - using South Road but no expressways it's 88mins at 730pm - the Northern Connector is yet to be added to Google maps, so lets use the 66min from the video so a 22min saving so far, once we add the middle sections is could be 30mins, pretty good actually a 90min journey turns into 60min.

[ChillyPhilly]

Here is the current state of the North-South corridor, compressed into a 11 minute video.

As always, feedback is welcomed!

https://youtu.be/1WVjokln1Eo

Great work as always!

What day did you film it? I'd never advocate anyone dare try, but it would be interesting to see this done during a peak hour period.

Also I'm curious, given this is sped up - is this what driving at 400km/h would look like? At least we could go back to being a 20 minute city again if so!

[how good is he]

Just curious on thoughts of the potential future expansion in say 10-20 years? Do we expect Old Noarlunga to Aldinga & McLaren Vale and the other way from Gawler to the Barossa? The McLaren Vale to Barossa freeway/wine trail?

[Norman]

The 2017 and 2020 drive throughs both took 66min, so the new road doesn't seem to save time in light traffic?. But the 2020 traffic looked heavier than the 2017 traffic, so maybe a 5 or 10 min saving and in peak this would probably double, add 6+ min once the middle section is done. The real point is how long would it take Gawler to Old Noarlunga without freeways - I just did the journey planner on Google Maps - using South Road but no expressways it's 88mins at 730pm - the Northern Connector is yet to be added to Google maps, so lets use the 66min from the video so a 22min saving so far, once we add the middle sections is could be 30mins, pretty good actually a 90min journey turns into 60min.

The first video was done on a public holiday (Christmas Day from memory) and the second one on the Sunday of a long weekend. The traffic was definitely heavier in the second video, and there were more speed restrictions.

[Nort]

Just curious on thoughts of the potential future expansion in say 10-20 years? Do we expect Old Noarlunga to Aldinga & McLaren Vale and the other way from Gawler to the Barossa? The McLaren Vale to Barossa freeway/wine trail?

Past Gawler this route turns into the Sturt Highway which heads straight to the wineries around Nurioopta.

[SBD]

Just curious on thoughts of the potential future expansion in say 10-20 years? Do we expect Old Noarlunga to Aldinga & McLaren Vale and the other way from Gawler to the Barossa? The McLaren Vale to Barossa freeway/wine trail?

Past Gawler this route turns into the Sturt Highway which heads straight to the wineries around Nurioopta.

Once the shared path along the Northern Connector opens, it might be possible to string together Willunga to Angaston on bikes with minimal on-road sections.

[rev]

The focus should be on finishing the NSM ASAP.
A possible next bug project...upgrading the Dukes from Tailem to tge Victorian border.
It's one of our state's main freight routes.
But I think our states infrastructure is so bad, where do you start next? Imho, how about draw 3 out of a hat and start them.
These politicians of ours are so useless, we may need such a novelty to actually get them to commit.

[SBD]

The focus should be on finishing the NSM ASAP.
A possible next bug project...upgrading the Dukes from Tailem to tge Victorian border.
It's one of our state's main freight routes.
But I think our states infrastructure is so bad, where do you start next? Imho, how about draw 3 out of a hat and start them.
These politicians of ours are so useless, we may need such a novelty to actually get them to commit.

Victoria is gradually extending its Western Freeway (continuation of the Dukes Highway) out towards SA, but I think even their long-term plan only does it as far as Ararat.

The worst bottleneck now is the Swanport Bridge. Duplicating that adds over 20km to the continuous four-lane highway from Glen Osmond. I assume it met the standards at the time it was built, but it feels very narrow now, stuck between a four-lane freeway and four-lane divided highway..

[Hooligan]

The focus should be on finishing the NSM ASAP.
A possible next bug project...upgrading the Dukes from Tailem to tge Victorian border.
It's one of our state's main freight routes.
But I think our states infrastructure is so bad, where do you start next? Imho, how about draw 3 out of a hat and start them.
These politicians of ours are so useless, we may need such a novelty to actually get them to commit.

Victoria is gradually extending its Western Freeway (continuation of the Dukes Highway) out towards SA, but I think even their long-term plan only does it as far as Ararat.

The worst bottleneck now is the Swanport Bridge. Duplicating that adds over 20km to the continuous four-lane highway from Glen Osmond. I assume it met the standards at the time it was built, but it feels very narrow now, stuck between a four-lane freeway and four-lane divided highway..

I believe the long term plan is to extend the western highway to Stawell.

[SBD]

The focus should be on finishing the NSM ASAP.
A possible next bug project...upgrading the Dukes from Tailem to tge Victorian border.
It's one of our state's main freight routes.
But I think our states infrastructure is so bad, where do you start next? Imho, how about draw 3 out of a hat and start them.
These politicians of ours are so useless, we may need such a novelty to actually get them to commit.

Victoria is gradually extending its Western Freeway (continuation of the Dukes Highway) out towards SA, but I think even their long-term plan only does it as far as Ararat.

The worst bottleneck now is the Swanport Bridge. Duplicating that adds over 20km to the continuous four-lane highway from Glen Osmond. I assume it met the standards at the time it was built, but it feels very narrow now, stuck between a four-lane freeway and four-lane divided highway..

I believe the long term plan is to extend the western highway to Stawell.

You could be right, although there seems to be nothing recent (last five years) online about it. In particular, it is not even dreamed of going to the larger town of Horsham, halfway to Adelaide (Nhill) or the state border.

UPDATE: Found the Western Highway duplication page at https://roadprojects.vic.gov.au/project ... rn-highway

[dbl96]

Victoria is gradually extending its Western Freeway (continuation of the Dukes Highway) out towards SA, but I think even their long-term plan only does it as far as Ararat.

The worst bottleneck now is the Swanport Bridge. Duplicating that adds over 20km to the continuous four-lane highway from Glen Osmond. I assume it met the standards at the time it was built, but it feels very narrow now, stuck between a four-lane freeway and four-lane divided highway..

I believe the long term plan is to extend the western highway to Stawell.

You could be right, although there seems to be nothing recent (last five years) online about it. In particular, it is not even dreamed of going to the larger town of Horsham, halfway to Adelaide (Nhill) or the state border.

UPDATE: Found the Western Highway duplication page at https://roadprojects.vic.gov.au/project ... rn-highway

Victoria also seems to have plans for a freeway bypass of Horsham.

If South Australia were to duplicate its section of the highway to the border, this could prompt Victoria to do the same thing in competition. South Australia was the first to begin the wide centreline with continuous crash barrier treatment. Crossing into Victoria, you could really notice how terrible the road was, after driving on SA's upgraded road, and I suspect the upgrades to the western Victorian sections of the road we are seeing now are a pride-motivated response to SA's action. Maybe a similar response would come from SA duplicating its section of the highway.

Ideally there should be a commitment and corresponding plan from both sides to duplicate the whole Adelaide-Melbourne corridor by a certain date. This was the approach used for Melbourne-Sydney and Sydney Brisbane.

Duplicating the Swanport Bridge should be of utmost priority. It is a very dangerous bottleneck that could be easily fixed at a relatively low price.

[Norman]

I don't think 'pride' has much to do with the corridor upgrade. It is also a very safe seat, so pork barrelling is unlikely to be the reason.

Most highways seem to be duplicated once they hit above a certain number of vehicles per day (and meeting the cost/benefit ratio). You can see this as Victor Harbor Road is getting duplicated/upgraded later than South Road between Seaford and Aldinga. Why? Traffic volumes are higher on South Road

Dukes Highway seems to be close to reaching the magical 5000 cars per day mark, which is the level that highways seem to be duplicated at. However, this is only applicable between Tailem Bend and Keith, which explains why the Keith to SA border section is very much a long term goal for now.

[NTRabbit]

There's nowhere further south for the motorway to go, the Onkaparinga National Park and a whole lot of valuable vineyards severely limit the options.

[marbles]

There's nowhere further south for the motorway to go, the Onkaparinga National Park and a whole lot of valuable vineyards severely limit the options.

haha done it...