Fixing the South Road-Castle Plaza traffic bottleneck

[HeapsGood]

Hi

Having a work car I have to travel into and out of the city almost on a daily basis. As I live down south my route usually takes me through the dreaded South Road-Castle Plaza bottleneck. In 8 Am peak hour traffic this can be a slow crawling nightmare, or even worse - heading back South at around 4-6 PM the traffic can be backed up as far away as sitting on top of the Cross Rd overpass. It's an absolute joke and it needs to be fixed. The main question is how.

I realise there are alternate routes to get into and out of the city (but arguably Marion Rd or Goodwood Rd can be worse) but the main discussion I thought i'd bring up is fixing the traffic bottleneck in the South Road Castle Plaza bottleneck through infrastructure changes and improvements.

The Government has said it plans to have a South Road expressway with no stops the whole length. This boggles the mind as to how this would be achieved, especially around the Castle Plaza area.

I have provided a general map of the South Road area starting from the Cross Road Overpass at the top (where traffic is usually backed up to on evenings) and all the way past Castle Plaza past Corunna Ave.

What would you do to improve the traffic flow keeping in mind the considerations of the local area?

My suggestions:
- Eliminate one set of traffic lights by building a pedestrian underpass where the current pedestrian traffic crossing is near Nando's. This may require the puchase of the some land and car park spaces in the Nando's carpark.
- It would seem eliminating the Edward St - South Rd - Ackland St Traffic lights would be a great solution. Ackland Rd only leads to a backstreet which turns onto Raglan Ave anyways. But then again this is a major corridor (including bus corridor) from Winston Ave and Goodwood Rd so maybe not a good idea.
-Eliminate the Furness Ave - South Rd traffic lights. Traffic wanting to enter Castle Plaza heading southwards from South Road will now have to enter via Raglan Ave (as will traffic wanting to reach Woodlands Train Station).
-Overpasses and underpasses in this general location seem unlikely?
-Im not sure on whats happening with the current Hills site...(can anyone fill me in, this land is earmarked as industrial zoning last I heard).

Anyways, im just amateur hour here. Any suggestions anyone else can provide would be great.

[jk1237]

if you work in the city, my suggestion to fix the bottleneck is for more people to take public transport

[AtD]

Yeah. The Tonsley Interchange would do wonders for South Road traffic.

[HeapsGood]

That would be great and normally I do take the train home, but as I have the work car these things cant be avoided.

Im also wondering how the supposed "superway" would work around this area.

[Aidan]

That would be great and normally I do take the train home, but as I have the work car these things cant be avoided.

Im also wondering how the supposed "superway" would work around this area.

It wouldn't. The superway is planned for the industrial area N of Regency Road. It would not be so well suited to Edwardstown, and it would be far too expensive to build one there anyway.

I think grade separation is the answer - but rather than vertically repositioning South Road, it should be done by building some bridges over South Road (Edward Street to Ackland Street for instance) and eliminate all right turns. Ideally this should be done in conjunction with widening South Road to 3 lanes each way (with the edge lane dedicated to local traffic so buses wouldn't disrupt the main flow and turning traffic could merge more easily).

But still the best way of reducing congestion on South Road is to improve the railway system.

[Cam]

I would close the South Road / Raglan Avenue intersection for a starter.
1. The Hills Site will be bulldozed.
2. Create a 100m Slipway pointing south along South Road to turn right into Ackland Street.
3. Widen and join Ackland Street on the 'diagonal' to Raglan Avenue.
4. Close Raglan Avenue entrance at South Road.

The Govt would have to override the Castle Plaza land owner to make the Ackland Street change possible though.

[rhino]

I would close the South Road / Raglan Avenue intersection for a starter.
1. The Hills Site will be bulldozed.
2. Create a 100m Slipway pointing south along South Road to turn right into Ackland Street.
3. Widen and join Ackland Street on the 'diagonal' to Raglan Avenue.
4. Close Raglan Avenue entrance at South Road.

The Govt would have to override the Castle Plaza land owner to make the Ackland Street change possible though.

I second this idea. Running Edward St into Raglan Ave via Ackland St or through the old Hills site would make for a better through-route in all 4 directions. The last bit of Ragland Ave can be incorporated into Castle Plaza carpark, or swapped for the Hills site.