[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[rockthenation]

To be fair there really is only a handful left and they are usually demolished a couple of weeks after being vacated. I noticed the funeral home near the port road corner was still having services as recently as last night. not sure when they will be vacating.

The funeral home will be moving to the corner of Port Rd and Cator St, saw a sign saying that last night on the way home from the soccer, it'll be a new building.

[how good is he]

The govt website gives mid 2015 as the deadline/timeframe to complete all demolition and for construction to commence. Things being done also between then includes choosing the consortium/builder, finalising drawings, relocation of services etc with completion in 2018.

[Xaragmata]

Between Port & Torrens Roads - two weeks ago:


















http://xaragmata.dyndns-web.com/album/c ... _9897.html

[HeapsGood]

At Darlington, contractors have set up a site office at the vacant lot next to Yum Sing Express, and there are various soil/drilling trucks taking samples along the area of South Road near the Science Park.

[Ben]

I'm quite impressed by the work going on next to the Brickworks and the widening to 3 lanes each way, but why would they then stop the upgrade at the river torrens. They should buy up the paver place, widen the bridge and then it would continue to the torrens to torrens section. Just seems so obvious to me.

[Dvious]

I was thinking the exact same the other week. Confuses me.

[rev]

I'm quite impressed by the work going on next to the Brickworks and the widening to 3 lanes each way, but why would they then stop the upgrade at the river torrens. They should buy up the paver place, widen the bridge and then it would continue to the torrens to torrens section. Just seems so obvious to me.

Probably because the work going on near the Brickworks is a separate project and contract to Torrens to Torrens.
The work around the brickworks probably has been contracted to go up to where it has and no further, and the rest will be done when the Torrens to Torrens project gets done.

[Ben]

I'm quite impressed by the work going on next to the Brickworks and the widening to 3 lanes each way, but why would they then stop the upgrade at the river torrens. They should buy up the paver place, widen the bridge and then it would continue to the torrens to torrens section. Just seems so obvious to me.

Probably because the work going on near the Brickworks is a separate project and contract to Torrens to Torrens.
The work around the brickworks probably has been contracted to go up to where it has and no further, and the rest will be done when the Torrens to Torrens project gets done.

I think you missed my point. The Brickworks section is being upgraded and then there will be a 200m section not upgraded and then the torrens to torrens upgrade starts. So there will be a section of about 200m that is not upgraded in the middle of 2 upgraded sections. My point is why would they not extend one to meet the other.

[rubberman]

My guess for that is that bridging is a bit more specialised than straight roadworks.

If they included the bridging in either of the major roads contracts, then the bridge work would probably be done by a subcontractor to the roadworks main contractor. In contract management, that means that the government would have no direct contact with the bridging contractor, nor would they get a wide range of bridging contractors tendering necessarily.

On the other hand, if the government offers a contract in which the major portion is a bridge, then it is likely that they will get more bids from bridge builders, with whom, contractually they can deal direct, and the roads contractor will be the subcontractor.

In other words, splitting the work like this is quite good practice, leading to cheaper tenders, better control, and more specialised bridge building firms applying.

[neoballmon]

From memory, the current Torrens to Torrens plans allow for one direction (cant remember which, I'm thinking southbound though) to be 3 lanes wide without any works on the bridge. So with only one side needing an addditional lane, it might be a while until they upgrade the bridge properly.

[Westside]

The work at Ashwin Pde is part of the Torrens to Torrens project, as is the additional lane on the existing Torrens River bridge. Just have a look at the map for this project:
http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__d ... -10-02.pdf

The naming of this project is pretty poor (from a logical perspective, not a commercial one). As although work is taking place from Ashwin Pde to Sunbeam Rd, the major work is only removing the Grange, and Port Rd intersections and the train line. The rest is just a slight widening with further projects needed to join them all up.

[rev]

The work at Ashwin Pde is part of the Torrens to Torrens project, as is the additional lane on the existing Torrens River bridge. Just have a look at the map for this project:
http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__d ... -10-02.pdf

The naming of this project is pretty poor (from a logical perspective, not a commercial one). As although work is taking place from Ashwin Pde to Sunbeam Rd, the major work is only removing the Grange, and Port Rd intersections and the train line. The rest is just a slight widening with further projects needed to join them all up.

What we meant was that contractually it's separate.
Of course it's part of the overall and wider north-south corridor project.

[victorious80]

Westside, I'm lucky enough to be working on both T2T and Ashwin Parade intersection upgrade. They are separate projects, under an overall North-South Corridor program of works. Which means they are funded separately, managed separately and contracted separately, however they are both designed to integrate into an overall South Rd design.

The works between River Torrens and Torrens Rd are more involved than just removing the Grange Rd, Port Rd and rail intersections (which are huge undertakings by themselves). It involves upgrading that entire section from Torrens to Torrens to a 3 lane non-stop motorway in each direction, as well as building a 2 lane at-grade South Rd in each direction for local users.

The works at Ashwin Parade are designed to improve traffic flows south of the Torrens to Torrens project until the motorway is extended south in the future. It also caters for the significant works that Woolworths are doing at the Brickworks.

Will try to keep you guys up to date as things progress.

[drsmith]

The main question for the existing South Road bridge over the Torrens is how it fits into the ultimate expressway solution. Being able to support 5-lanes of traffic, it could potentially be used to service an ultimate configuration of 3 expressway and two service lanes southbound (subject to expressway compatibility with the existing curve in the road at bridge) with bridge duplication on the western side for northbound. South of the Torrens, the expressway trench could then recommence to go under Aswhin Parade.

Widening the existing bridge by one lane as an interim solution to provide 3-lanes in each direction as an interim solution is therefore not compatible with either duplication or reconstruction for the ultimate expressway design.

On another question relevant to the Northern Connector, the freight toll is going ahead for a proposed upgrade of roads in the western suburbs of Perth (Perth Freight Link).

http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/pa ... tatId=8935

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/Documen ... 688715.PDF

It's interesting in the sense that the fright toll extends beyond the scope of the Perth Freight Link project. The implication here for the Northern Connector (for which the federal government is trying to secure a freight toll) is that it would likely extend to the Northern Expressway and Superway should the federal and state governments reach agreement. Also of interest is the lack of private sector interest for the above road upgrade in Perth. The WA state government will fund what was to be the private sector component and collect the freight toll with the hope of privatising the route in the future.

IIRC, the SA state government wasn't too keen on a freight toll to help fund the Northern Connector.

[rev]

I'm pretty sure that cemetery on the corner of Adam st is heritage listed, otherwise they could straighten up that bend section.