The Molonglo Thread

Started by Buzz Killington, January 02, 2008, 06:10:16 PM

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ajw373

Quote from: smitho on June 26, 2014, 06:57:12 PM
New service station intended for both Weston Ck and Molonglo communities is to be located on the Cotter Rd. Precise location is not known, but my guess is that it'll be on the westbound carriageway after the Tugg Parkway overpass.

A bit unusual being located on what will be a busy arterial road and nowhere near a local or group centre. Doesn't seem a very clever proposal.

Don't know about it not being cleaver. It certainly doesn't follow the norm in Canberra, but elsewhere in Australia and most of the world for that matter it is quite normal and dare I say very cleaver to actually have, shock horror a servo on a main road.

smitho

Why introduce needless congestion onto urban arterial roads when it can be avoided by smart planning?

European countries (possibly excepting Britain) know about smart town planning and avoiding these kinds of bad siting decisions.

Methinks it is the almighty dollar dictating the Cotter Rd site.

Anyway, wrong to suggest that Canberra hasn't got service stations on arterial roads....years ago, NCDC was pressured to permit two sites on Northbourne Ave / Federal Highway.

ajw373

Quote from: smitho on July 01, 2014, 11:52:56 PM
Why introduce needless congestion onto urban arterial roads when it can be avoided by smart planning?

European countries (possibly excepting Britain) know about smart town planning and avoiding these kinds of bad siting decisions.

Methinks it is the almighty dollar dictating the Cotter Rd site.

Anyway, wrong to suggest that Canberra hasn't got service stations on arterial roads....years ago, NCDC was pressured to permit two sites on Northbourne Ave / Federal Highway.

European countries, have servos on main roads. In fact below is a list of places that I have visited overseas (you can add about 40 places in the UK to that list too) and the only place in the world where servos are not on main roads is Canberra. Though yes of course there are a couple of exceptions as you have mentioned. Guess you can also add Majura Park, Monaro Highway at Hume and least us not forget the Gull that was on Wentworth Ave too. None of which cause any traffic issues. So not sure what your concern is.

Accra
Amman
Amsterdam
Ankara
Assen
Athens
Auckland
Bali
Bangkok
Belfast
Belgrade
Berlin
Bern
Brest
Brussels
Budapest
Cairo
Colombo
Copenhagen
Cork
Dallas
Dili
Dublin
France
Geneva
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City
Hong Kong
Honolulu
Inverness
Islamabad
Istanbul
Jakarta
Jerusalem
Kuala Lumpur
Lausanne
Lisbon
London
Los Angeles
Madrid
Mae Sai (Chiang Rai)
Malta
Miami
Moscow
New Delhi
New York City
Nicosia
Paris
Phnom Penh
Phuket
Port of Spain
Prague
Rangoon
Rome
Singapore
St. Mortiz
Stockholm
Tel Aviv
Toulouse
Vienna
Vientiane
Warsaw
Washington DC
Zagreb
Zermatt

Bus 400

Are we forgetting about the Shell & BP service stations on Melrose Drive in Phillip or the BP on Canberra Avenue in Kingston (or Manuka if that's the case)?

The hardest bit is trying to compare it with another new service stations sites in the ACT (under ACT planning laws). The only one I can think of are the two in Gungahlin, which are in the most annoying spot for service stations. But I am under the belief that the two in Kambah are in the most convenient location. The one near Kambah Village is just off Drakeford Drive (which avoids any congestion on Drakeford Drive) & is directly across from the main shopping centre. The one in South Kambah, is again just off Drakeford Drive (either via Jenke Circuit or O'Halloran Circuit) & it is used by parents picking up their kids from school. One location is set up for people filling up on their way to work & the other is set up for people filling up in their way home.

Barry Drive

Quote from: Bus 400 on July 02, 2014, 10:33:06 PM
Are we forgetting about the Shell & BP service stations on Melrose Drive in Phillip or the BP on Canberra Avenue in Kingston (or Manuka if that's the case)?
Griffith, actually. (Yes, I know they call it BP Kingston, but it's not.)

For those who are too young to remember, Melrose Drive had a Mobil service station at what is now Canberra Toyota / Lexus and there was also a Caltex at what is now CFWC on Botany Street. Similarly, Macquarie/Jamison started out with 3 servos: BP, Shell and Ampol (this was before Belconnen Town Centre existed).

Not sure what my point is. It might be that the "old" approach of siting multiple service stations at major locations to encourage competition has proved to not work. Nor did the concept of suburban service stations. Neither did offering prime sites to "discount" operators such as Gull who then sold out to Woolworths. (I'm not a fan of Government intervention in retail competition - should be a level playing field.) So if all of the above fails, next approach is to allow uber-service stations.

smitho

Old parts of European cities have fuel stations on busy roads, but in new urban developments, they tend to be clustered within "town centres" rather than sited on their equivalents of arterial roads.




Buzz Killington

Opperman Avenue has opened, connecting John Gorton Dr to Uriarra Road at the roundabout to Stromlo Park. Uriarra Road has been closed (permanently?) from that roundabout down to Swallowtail Road, which has had its old Uriarra Road signs replaced.

Barry Drive

Good to hear the Uriarra Road signs have finally been replaced. Based on the sign at the intersection of Opperman & Uriarra, the segment of Uriarra Road to Swallowtail Road is permanently closed. But I've not been able to find any official notification on the internet, other than on the Stromlo Park website.


Buzz Killington


ajw373

Drove out Molonglo Way the other day for the first time since John Denman Drive north of Wright had opened and noticed that they appear to be building a bridge over the river to the west of Coppings Crossing.

All plans I've seen show John Denman Drive crossing the river to the east of Coppins Crossing, heading east then turning north towards Bindubi Street. However the bridge is on the western side of Coppings Crossing with the stub on John Denman drive pointing towards said bridge.

So it would appear as if a change has been made, but am curious of John Denman will still swing back to Bindubi or if now it appears to be going west if it will swing back to Coulter Drive instead. (even earlier plans had it joining William Hovell halfway between Coulter and Bindubi)

Two other things, it is pleasing to see they have built it dual lane from the beginning, but am surprised they didn't build the median wide like Flemmington Road for future light rail development.

Getting OT I also drove on the Horse Park extensions and was pleased to see they have built the intersections to dual lane standard, so no more rebuilding every few as traffic increases and new developments open up, as was the case with the rest of Horse Park Drive.

King of Buses

I believe it is John Gorton Dr like the building in Parkes on routes 2 and 3...and other runs but those are the ones I usually go on...

ajw373

 Year you right, was wrongly crossing it with Denman Prospect which the road runs through.

Any idea on the change of alignment and were it will now end up?

King of Buses

My strent directory from 2013 shows John Gorton splitting after the bridge (east of copping xing) to have two roads with the same name. One to Coulter and the other to bindubi. ..so I'm not sure...either way, it will make for a bus run to Belco from Molonglo. ..though I think we already knew that..

ajw373

That is similar to the map I've seen too, though what I've seen is John Gorton going to Bindubi and a road coming off it heading to Coulter Drive. This road is also marked as part of the Intertown transport route, see link below. But as mentioned it must of changed due to the location of the bridge just not seen anything about the change and the it. Unless of course what the are building over the river isn't a road bridge, but sure looks like it is.

http://www.planning.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/33217/Molonglo_Valley_Territory_Plan_Map.pdf

Buzz Killington

I thought John Gorton was to run to Bindubi, while the new bridge is for a realignment of Coppins Crossing Rd to Coulter, but I may be wrong,

Barry Drive

Quote from: King of Buses on December 28, 2014, 06:46:24 PM
I believe it is John Gorton Dr like the building in Parkes on routes 2 and 3

Correct. Sir John Grey Gorton: 19th Prime Minister of Australia (1968-1971).

Denman Prospect is named for Lady Gertrude (Trudie) Denman and Lord Thomas Denman (not John).

Done some internet searching - can't find anything that suggests the route of John Gorton Drive has changed, bar one reference to a realignment. The road will mark the boundary between Denman Prospect and Molonglo so its route is fairly important.

My guess is that the bridge you are referring to is not actually crossing the Molonglo River (yet), just the valley.

ajw373

Quote from: ACTbusspotter on December 29, 2014, 10:14:05 AM
My guess is that the bridge you are referring to is not actually crossing the Molonglo River (yet), just the valley.

Just looked on google maps to see if I could explain where I could see the form work. The form work I could see was one of the moveable ones like they are using to build the Mujura Parkway Bridge over the river and used on the Gungahlin Drive bridges over Belconnen Way. Anyway lo and behold you can see the worksite and the form work on the 100m image. It is crossing the river basically heading north west with the form launching from the northern side of the river. If not the road, guess it could be water main or sewer related, but don't see why they would need such a large form work if one of those. Could also be a secondary road too I guess.

Barry Drive

#67
Did some further internet searches (including looking at the satellite images on Google Maps). The thing being built is a combined "sewer and pedestrian link bridge". (Refer to ACT Budget 2014-15 )

There are no plans at present for the John Gorton Drive crossing of Molonglo River.

ajw373

Quote from: ACTbusspotter on December 31, 2014, 09:13:58 AM
Did some further internet searches (including looking at the satellite images on Google Maps). The thing being built is a combined "sewer and pedestrian link bridge". (Refer to ACT Budget 2014-15 )

There are no plans at present for the John Gorton Drive crossing of Molonglo River.

Interesting thanks. Must be going to be some serious bridge to need to use that kind of moving formwork. Will be interesting to see. If you look at the alignment of John Gorton Drive where it ends, you can see why I had suspected it was a road bridge as it is heading right for it.

So if the plans I linked above reflect the re-aligned road (which I reckon they must as the original plan had the road ending halfway between Coulter Drive and Bindubi Street) it must mean the road is going to swing back to the right and cross Coppins Crossing road yet again when it is eventually built.

Buzz Killington


Buzz Killington

The first suburb in stage three has been named Whitlam.

Bus 400

For some random reason, the street lights for Denman Prospect were on last night. The strrets were still blocked off (can't be for much longer now) & the lights weren't on the previous Friday night.

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Bus 400