News & Discussion: Roads & Traffic

[drsmith]

It would be interesting to see what they've got in mind for $150-200m.

The simplest approach to me would be a single carriageway bypass from near the end of the dual carriageway south of the town northward through to a new connection with the national highway north of the existing Copper Coast Road intersection. For safety, roundabouts could be constructed at both ends connecting the bypass to the existing highway. Where the bypass crosses the Balaklava road there could be an additional roundabout with the Balaklava road realigned to provide an access to the BP from the bypass. This arrangement could take sufficient pressure off the existing National Highway/Copper Coast Highway intersection such that it wouldn't require modification.

The roundabouts could be designed to suit future duplication and grade separation of the bypass but that in my view wouldn't be needed for a very long time, if ever. This is the approach being adopted for a new upcoming highway build north of Perth where grade separation isn't considered necessary at initial build.

https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/s ... sation.pdf

See pages 26 to 28 and note that the interchange bridges won't be build as part of the interim roundabout design for these three intersections.

The Copper Coast/Yorke highway intersection could also be reconstructed as a roundabout but that's a separate issue.

[Norman]

Given the Holbrook Bypass cost $250m, I would not be surprised if $200m can get you a duplicated bypass with grade separated interchanges.

[Goodsy]

what was the cost on the Gawler bypass?

[[Shuz]]

The Gawler East Link Road will be a 2.8km bypass of the eastern suburbs of Gawler East, costing $55m. This is for a single lane carriageway, including a round about and a bridge.

Just to give you an idea of what money can buy you at today's prices.

[Goodsy]

The Gawler East Link Road will be a 2.8km bypass of the eastern suburbs of Gawler East, costing $55m. This is for a single lane carriageway, including a round about and a bridge.

Just to give you an idea of what money can buy you at today's prices.

No i meant the bypass already built

[Norman]

Wasn't that built in the 80s? In that case any cost would be irrelevant today.

[jk1237]

my family has had a place at Moonta Bay ever since I was a little kid, and everyone has a hissy fit over the intersection from the Yorkes turnoff to Highway 1 as it leads into Port Wakefield. In reality its really not that bad, however people can't accept waiting in a line of traffic for just 1 minute. In Melbourne and Sydney there are major traffic jams on the freeways in and out of the cities in peak holiday times. The intersection is fine, the little trip through Port Wakefield is also fine. Geez I can remember when the dual highway ended just past Two Wells and on peak holiday weekends the speed would crawl to under 60 for about an hour all the way from Port Wakefield to Lower Light (usually the caravans would be the problem)

[drsmith]

my family has had a place at Moonta Bay ever since I was a little kid, and everyone has a hissy fit over the intersection from the Yorkes turnoff to Highway 1 as it leads into Port Wakefield. In reality its really not that bad, however people can't accept waiting in a line of traffic for just 1 minute. In Melbourne and Sydney there are major traffic jams on the freeways in and out of the cities in peak holiday times. The intersection is fine, the little trip through Port Wakefield is also fine. Geez I can remember when the dual highway ended just past Two Wells and on peak holiday weekends the speed would crawl to under 60 for about an hour all the way from Port Wakefield to Lower Light (usually the caravans would be the problem)

I can remember when that intersection was a simple connection between the two roads with priority for the Copper Coast Highway (not called that back then). Heavy transport on the national highway in particular probably wouldn't appreciate that solution today. A roundabout back then would have been a better solution given how long the present intersection configuration has had to serve as the main connection.

Problems with the road segment between Two Wells and Port Wakefield prior to duplication were compounded by a complete absence of overtaking lanes. The present configuration through Port Wakefield however negates the benefit of the dual carriageway (and some) during holiday periods.

The above though in my view illustrates only a modest solution is required in bypassing the town. It would also provide an alternative crossing to the existing sub-standard bridge over the Wakefield River which is prone to flooding.

[warpspeed]

If they wanted to solve this properly, one of two things is needed:

Either:
Traffic splits south of Port Wakefield, and Yorke Peninsula traffic goes through Port Wakefield and Port Augusta traffic bypasses.

or

Traffic splits north of Port Wakefield and all traffic goes through Port Wakefield on a dual lane road. i.e. they'd need to do works in Port Wakefield and north of Port Wakefield to widen the roads to dual-lane.

The issues caused with traffic heading out of Adelaide, are due to a dual lane 110km/h road being knocked back to one lane and then speeds being dropped to 50. North it's the merging of the two roads and that stupid intersection.

Done properly the dual lane road, either south or north of Port Wakefield would have the roads join and add/subtract the dual lanes, not merge.

So at the point where the roads merge, the dual lane highway would be created/removed by adding/separating both roads. Therefore no merging required. This would require one overpass for one inside lane.

From Adelaide, one would select the left lane for Yorke Peninsula or the right lane for Port Augusta, and they'd separate and head off in their respective directions. Similarly coming back from the other direction, Yorke Peninsula traffic would arrive in the right lane, and Port Augusta traffic in the left lane. No merging or crossing of roads required. Just needs one overpass for one inside lane (most likely whichever one could be built in a straight line to minimise cost).

[Waewick]

Well I was fortunate enough to drive from the Riverland to Adelaide on the weekend

Let me just say, parts of the drive were an absolute nightmare.

I use the road very often and know it well, but for many of the users it is probably 1 of the 2 or 3 times a year they leave the city (and likely have a caravan or boat on board) and the basic understanding of Higway Driving was horrific.

People overtaking over blindspots, speeding up in overtaking lanes, not leaving gaps between cars to allow faster motorists to overtake, swerving between lanes to see oncoming traffice rather than pulling back a bit and the worst was drivers overtaking large amounts of cars with no clear passage back into their lane.

As our population gets more urban (and our drivers less experienced ) rather than having revenue raisers looking for easy $$, how about they start putting up mobile signs letting people know some of the basic highway driving skills? I guess you could add a speeding camera on them to make sure they are revenue positive.

My memorable moment was overtaking a car doing about 85 and them putting their highbeams on full blast becuase I had the audacity to overtake (it was a very safe spot to overtakewith a very long view of oncoming traffic ) after they had fended me off on the overtaking lane after going from 85 to 110 during that peice of road.
either that, or duplicate the road right through to Renmark to make it even safer.

[drsmith]

It looks like the signed alternative route around Port Wakefield provide some traffic relief.

The annual Easter Monday traffic log jam experienced around Port Wakefield Rd was relatively better than usual as motorists took advantage of a signed alternate route back to Adelaide.

The Transport Department was promoting the detour for light vehicles travelling from Yorke Peninsula and the north of the state.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/nati ... 468da01bf0

I think the best long term solution would be for both YP and national highway traffic to bypass the town through a grade separated interchange north of Port Wakefield that also includes a realigned Balaklava Road that connects directly to the Copper Coast Highway at the interchange. This provides all the necessary connections from both east (Bowmans) and west (YP) grade separated from the national highway traffic at a single location.

Port Wakefield could then be accessible both north and south much as Dublin is from the national highway (T-junctions) and also from the Copper Coast Highway using an existing road segment as part of the north side access. It does however make Port Wakefield less accessible as a rest stop location for all movements except northbound to YP.

[drsmith]

Drove southbound on Copper Coast Highway onto PWR at ~12:30pm Monday Apr 11 and noted the aftermath of a traffic accident at the intersection. Truck vs vehicle towing caravan (as advised by PW BP staff). Truck was on its side adjacent to PWR southbound carriageway opposite Copper Coast Highway southbound lane connection onto PWR. Police and traffic management on site. Intersection at the time was under manual control.

There was a caravan with one side crumpled in on a tray back truck parked on the side of the Balaklava Road just east of PW a short time later (could be unrelated).

[rev]

This thread on Reddit made me giggle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comme ... y_sinking/

[Vee]

Extended clearways.
I have just got back from a month's holidays up north, so may have missed this.

Travelling down Greenhill Road today, it was good to see the mobile signs highlighting coming changed clearway times on Greenhill Rd (from Anzac Hwy to Fullarton Rd).
Morning from 7.30-9am - increased to 7-10am and afternoon from 4.30-6pm - increased to 3-7pm.

Great news for improved/safe traffic flow and cyclists.

Next?
Extend to other main roads? Times and both sides.

Any chance?
24 hour clearways on major roads, with cycle lanes.

[neoballmon]

This post on DPTI's facebook gives the impression that they'll be doing more of this around Adelaide.

How frustrating when you get caught behind a parked car along Greenhill Road at 7.15am or 3.15pm – unable to merge out – stuck.



We are extending clearway times along Greenhill Road from Anzac Highway to Glynburn Road to improve your traffic flow.



This change, which will extend clearways to 7am-10am and 3pm-7pm, also aims to reduce rear-end, side-swipe and hit-parked road crashes.



Starting soon, more to come…