[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[SouthAussie94]

I drove northbound through Darlington at about 3.30pm and it appeared that they had one southbound lane closed, with the speed dropped to 25km/h. Southbound traffic was banked up fairly solidly from Sturt Road to just north of Castle Plaza.

If this is any indication of what traffic will be like during the construction then it could be a long 3 years!

Great to see progress being made though..

[mawsonguy]

Just posted on AdelaideNow:

AN UNDERGROUND South Rd motorway will be built through the Torrens Rd intersection in an unexpected 1km extension to the $896 million project to ease notorious traffic snarls. In a new federal/state deal, funds to extend northwards the Torrens Rd to River Torrens non-stop motorway have been found within the existing budget.

“Avoiding the intersection of South and Torrens roads is predicted to cut another two minutes from average travel times on this section of South Rd, increasing the overall average travel time saving for the project to about 7.5 minutes,” he said.
Mr Mullighan said the extra funds had been found through a combination of reducing relocation costs for gas, water and other services, contract management and design and construction innovation.

Now if they just block right turns at Pym Street and build a bridge over Regency Road ...

[Goodsy]

Just posted on AdelaideNow:

AN UNDERGROUND South Rd motorway will be built through the Torrens Rd intersection in an unexpected 1km extension to the $896 million project to ease notorious traffic snarls. In a new federal/state deal, funds to extend northwards the Torrens Rd to River Torrens non-stop motorway have been found within the existing budget.

“Avoiding the intersection of South and Torrens roads is predicted to cut another two minutes from average travel times on this section of South Rd, increasing the overall average travel time saving for the project to about 7.5 minutes,” he said.
Mr Mullighan said the extra funds had been found through a combination of reducing relocation costs for gas, water and other services, contract management and design and construction innovation.

Now if they just block right turns at Pym Street and build a bridge over Regency Road ...

Well so far they've extended it southbound by 600m and northbound by 1km, why stop now. Would a bridge over Regency road go back to ground level to connect with the superway or would it stay elevated?

[Nathan]

http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/nsc ... _extension

On, Saturday 12 December 2015, the South Australian and Australian Governments announced the extension of the existing Torrens Road to Torrens River Project to include the section of South Road between Pym Street and Torrens Road in Croydon Park.

The extension will result in the grade separation of South Road and Torrens Road and extend the lowered motorway by approximately one kilometre. All works will be completed within the current approved $896 million budget and completed within the original timeframe; by the end of 2018.

The concept design includes:

• An extension of the lowered motorway beneath Torrens Road returning to grade near Pym Street
• Improved signalised intersection at Pym Street
• Parallel surface roads each side of the lowered motorway to provide access to the surrounding community and local businesses
• Improved cycling and pedestrian facilities
• Landscaping and noise barriers (where required)
• Safety and travel efficiency will be significantly improved with the extension of the lowered motorway beneath the Torrens Road intersection.

The Australian and South Australian Governments have allocated in excess of $2.5 billion for the North-South Corridor, Torrens Road to River Torrens Project, Darlington Upgrade Project and Northern Connector Project.

These projects are expected to support provide more than 1300 full time equivalent jobs (both direct and supply chain) throughout delivery.

Project information can be found at: www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/t2t. This website contains key information and we encourage you to make yourself familiar with the preliminary concept design.

[ChillyPhilly]

Well that's a pleasant surprise!

[muzzamo]

My gut feeling is that we could end up with a similar "surprise" for the intersection of South and Ayliffes Road. The concept design has been quite ambiguous regarding this intersection and dropping out of the competitive tender process we could see savings sufficient for the design to incorporate that intersection too.

[claybro]

So SA is now financing its major infrastructure by finding "surprise" money down the back of the couch?! What the hell is going on over there? Just plan the whole dam thing including planning future funding NOW, while money and labor are cheap..and do it already. It has been 50 years in the making, so enough with the drip drip drip feeding approach.

[ChillyPhilly]

Can we also have a 'surprise' rail electrification announcement too? Cheers.

[rev]

Alright...so from Torrens Road, travelling either East towards the City or West towards the beach, how do we get onto the motorway?
There doesn't seem to be any access...

Now it's not so much a major issue for local residents. Because we can simply do the short trip around from Pym Street or Regency Road and head south on South Road to get onto the motorway.
However, peak times in the morning and afternoon are extremely busy on Torrens and South Roads.
Torrens Road isn't just some back street, it's a main arterial road into the CBD.
Your other main arterial roads in the area are Park/Fitzroy Tce which has been widened, Port Road, Regency Road, and of course South Road.



Would it have been that difficult to have added an on ramp from the elevated section of South Road to the motorway entering just in front of where the orange truck is, and where the motorway very obviously rises up, and an off ramp on the opposite side?
On the eastern side where the orange truck is, they could have it down to one lane until half way to Hawker street.

[muzzamo]

So SA is now financing its major infrastructure by finding "surprise" money down the back of the couch?! What the hell is going on over there? .

It's a competitive tender. Two or three competing consortiums put tenders in, and the one with the best design wins. This may offer more than was first thought out when the project was budgeted.

Also, when you get further into detailed design, you get a better idea of what and how much can be delivered. But it's millions of dollars worth of design, so this knowledge is not obtained until later.

[claybro]

Rev, despite the fact it is called a "motorway" it is actually really a freeway and is therefore not intended for access at every intersection, even every main road. The primary function of the lowered roadway is to get people quickly from North to South. The more entry merges thre are, slows the traffic and reduces its efficiency.

[Goodsy]

Just as I expected, focus on the 42 homes being acquired rather than the massive extension to the project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjXnJxH9-mE

well done nine news

[monotonehell]

Rev, despite the fact it is called a "motorway" it is actually really a freeway and is therefore not intended for access at every intersection, even every main road. The primary function of the lowered roadway is to get people quickly from North to South. The more entry merges thre are, slows the traffic and reduces its efficiency.

True but, "expressway", "motorway" and "freeway" are all interchangeable terms - they all mean a controlled access road.

[claybro]

Yes the various definitions of the words have previously been discussed at length on here, but I do believe the word "freeway" has been deliberately avoided in Adelaide due to its negative connotation in the urban context in Adelaides conservative mindset. The result however of denying it is in fact a freeway, lead people to believe it should be accessible and able to be crossed at all points along the route. It would appear however that they are achieving the miracle of a freeway by stealth, and not before time.

[phenom]

Just as I expected, focus on the 42 homes being acquired rather than the massive extension to the project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjXnJxH9-mE

well done nine news

Holy crap. I feel I saw a similar report (perhaps channel 7?) last night - no where near as much focus on home acquisition but had a 'banner' at the bottom saying 'homeowners to be told on Monday'. According to the ABC homeowners were told 'earlier in the week'. I don't subscribe so I couldn't see what the AdelaideNow commentariat 'negative perspective' was on something that was basically an unmitigated win - much more for the same money. I guess people need to bemoan something... anything... just because!

Obviously I actually do feel for the 80 year old owners who need to move but I don't get this thing that they had no idea - at best, I assume it is just happening sooner than expected. They obviously live on the path of a NS corridor and I'm sure they haven't missed that even the old plan was bringing the gap between them and the Superway to a very small distance indeed and that sooner or later that gap would be closed. Let's be honest, the Government virtually always pays at the 'upper end' of fair price when it does compulsory acquisitions - that's why you actually hear very few complaints when they do it.