[COM] M2 Northern Connector | 15.5km | $867m

[ChillyPhilly]

Traffic was tame enough this morning to utilise the southbound lanes of the Superway this morning.

The on-ramp from Salisbury Highway will eventually be reduced to one lane (it's temporarily set up for 2 lanes for now until the northern connector opens), with the lane form Salisbury Highway providing a 4th lane on the Superway until the Grand Junction Rd exit.

So it looks the 3 lanes from the Northern Connector will connect seemlessly with 3 lanes on the Superway without the need to merge.

This set-up confuses me because the Salisbury Highway to Superway ramp is still wide enough for two lanes. I did drive it last night, so it will be interesting to see the final product.

[SBD]

Traffic was tame enough this morning to utilise the southbound lanes of the Superway this morning.

The on-ramp from Salisbury Highway will eventually be reduced to one lane (it's temporarily set up for 2 lanes for now until the northern connector opens), with the lane form Salisbury Highway providing a 4th lane on the Superway until the Grand Junction Rd exit.

So it looks the 3 lanes from the Northern Connector will connect seemlessly with 3 lanes on the Superway without the need to merge.

Traffic coming from Salisbury Highway but not intending to exit at Grand Junction Road is still going to need to merge into the stream of traffic from the Northern Connector, at the same time as some of that traffic is seeking to move into the Grand Junction Road exit lane.

Some of that section is presently only three lanes, with safety/emergency lanes/shoulders on each side. Presumably to convert it to four lanes, these safety buffers get made narrower? Are there road design rules about how wide these shoulders and the traffic lanes should be for various speed limits? Will expanding from three lanes to four in the same space mean the speed limit must be reduced? Or are the shoulders presently over-wide to allow for this future expansion?

[Norman]

Are there road design rules about how wide these shoulders and the traffic lanes should be for various speed limits?

Yes, absolutely.

[aaronjameslange]

Are there road design rules about how wide these shoulders and the traffic lanes should be for various speed limits?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd say that having individual lane speed signs means motorists can be notified that the left lane is blocked (with a red X) and the other lanes are reduced to 40. This would be an alternative to having a hard shoulder to break down on. Similar to T2T

[Brucetiki]

Are there road design rules about how wide these shoulders and the traffic lanes should be for various speed limits?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd say that having individual lane speed signs means motorists can be notified that the left lane is blocked (with a red X) and the other lanes are reduced to 40. This would be an alternative to having a hard shoulder to break down on. Similar to T2T

The ITS is designed to replace emergency stopping lanes I believe.

[Brucetiki]

Traffic coming from Salisbury Highway but not intending to exit at Grand Junction Road is still going to need to merge into the stream of traffic from the Northern Connector, at the same time as some of that traffic is seeking to move into the Grand Junction Road exit lane.

Some of that section is presently only three lanes, with safety/emergency lanes/shoulders on each side. Presumably to convert it to four lanes, these safety buffers get made narrower? Are there road design rules about how wide these shoulders and the traffic lanes should be for various speed limits? Will expanding from three lanes to four in the same space mean the speed limit must be reduced? Or are the shoulders presently over-wide to allow for this future expansion?

The 4 lanes on the Superway consist of

- Left lane will exit onto Grand Junction/South Rd (so those entering from Salisbury Highway will need to change lanes, but have plenty of time to do so).
- 2nd left lane you have the choice of either going straight on the Superway, or exit onto the Grand Junction/South Rd (so those exiting from the Northern Connector won't need to merge into the left lane)
- Right two lanes are straight on the Superway

Don't forget that Salisbury Highway should be alot quieter once the Northern Connector is up and running so there shouldn't be any major problems merging/changing lanes.

[rhino]

Don't forget that Salisbury Highway should be alot quieter once the Northern Connector is up and running so there shouldn't be any major problems merging/changing lanes.

What Salisbury Highway traffic will move on to the Northern Connector? They are divergent routes.
Are you talking about the short stretch between South Road and Port Wakefield Road?

[SBD]

Don't forget that Salisbury Highway should be alot quieter once the Northern Connector is up and running so there shouldn't be any major problems merging/changing lanes.

What Salisbury Highway traffic will move on to the Northern Connector? They are divergent routes.
Are you talking about the short stretch between South Road and Port Wakefield Road?

At present, any traffic that comes from any of Salisbury Highway north of Port Wakefield Road, Port Wakefield Road north of Salisbury Highway, Northern Expressway, Kings Road and Elder Smith Drive all end up using Salisbury Highway to get to the Superway if they intend to go down the North-South Motorway. Once the NC is open, traffic from Elder Smith Drive and the southern bit of Salisbury Highway will still come that way, but Kings Road, Waterloo Corner Road, Northern Expressway and Port Wakefield Road (north of Bolivar Road) will all feed to the Northern Connector. It might even draw a bit of traffic across from Main North Road (especially once R2P is completed too).

I suspect that will halve the traffic on the end of Salisbury Highway (Salisbury Highway Extension for those of us old enough to remember it being built).

[Brucetiki]

Don't forget that Salisbury Highway should be alot quieter once the Northern Connector is up and running so there shouldn't be any major problems merging/changing lanes.

What Salisbury Highway traffic will move on to the Northern Connector? They are divergent routes.
Are you talking about the short stretch between South Road and Port Wakefield Road?

Which is called Salisbury Highway As SBD mentioned, traffic should halve along that stretch once the Connector opens, and it'll be mostly residential traffic, so locals won't be stuck behind too many road trains doing 40 in a 90 zone with a 'Without trucks, Australia stops' placard on it and be able to do 90 along that stretch in peak hour.

[Brucetiki]

The new westbound alignment of the Port River Expressway/Salisbury Highway has opened today.

The Hanson Rd ramp off ramp from Port River Expressway is now closed for the week to update it's alignment to the Port River Expressway.

[Hooligan]

Southbound Nexy from Heaslip road to PWR will also be closed for night works to next two nights.

[mrumley02]

I drove southbound on NExy between Heaslip Rd and PWR last night (Tuesday 21st Jan 2020) at 10pm and while there was obviously work going on (in the dividing strip and under the southbound PWR bridge) there was only an earlier speed restriction in place. No additional road closures.

[rogue]

Community open day currently scheduled for Sunday 8 February. Likely to take another couple of weeks after that before opening to traffic.

[aaronjameslange]

Community open day currently scheduled for Sunday 8 February. Likely to take another couple of weeks after that before opening to traffic.

Yep, apart from the southern interchange, bugger all has been happening on the Bolivar and northern interchanges. Some of the variable speed signs at the northern interchange have been sitting on the side of the road since before Christmas waiting to be put up. Gantries are going up with no signs on them, and the old traffic lights are still in place at Bolivar intersection. Waterloo corner has been completed months ago but we still have to slow to 60kmh thru there. And the superway offramp is still not complete where it meets Salisbury highway, requiring at least 1 more closure to complete. My tip is the advertiser will be posting a sob story that it's Easter weekend and still not open

[Hooligan]

Easter's in April. Id like to think at least the main carriageway would be open then.