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

[Prince George]

Does a cloverleaf still count as a proper freeway style junction? A proper cloverleaf can't handle very much traffic.

I don't believe so. AFAIK, no full cloverleaf junctions are built in the States anymore, and California has a policy of replacing them when it's time for them to be rebuilt.

[drsmith]

Several cloverleafs have been eliminated by adding traffic lights on the non-freeway route. Sometimes, this is even done at the intersection of two freeways, particularly when one freeway terminates at an interchange with another. An example of this is in Lakewood, Washington, at the interchange between Interstate-5 and Wash.-512. A visible ramp stub shows that one of the four leaves was removed; thus eliminating an unsafe weave on I-5. In the future, the traffic signal will be replaced by a two-lane flyover, completing the freeway-to-freeway interchange once again.

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverleaf_interchange

The cloverleaf is an interchange of the past.

[Aidan]

The cloverleaf is an interchange of the past.

Not exactly - it's still appropriate for the intersection of two freeways with low traffic volumes. It's just that there are very few places where two freeways with low traffic volumes intersect.

Advantages and disadvantages of various type of grade separated junctions can be found here.

[Waewick]

anyone checked out the project lately

i'm lazy and keen for an update

[Hooligan]

anyone checked out the project lately

i'm lazy and keen for an update

Well, it's still being planned so i can't give you a photo update.

[ChillyPhilly]

DTEI has put up the proposed layout of the Northern Connector on the website.

http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/northern_connector

It can be viewed by downloading the brochure (on the right-hand side of the page).

I'm liking the 'big city thinking' with a more proper approach to planning interchanges. Instead of a piddly widdly traffic light intersection, we're getting the Full Monty at last!

[drsmith]

The artists impressions of the interchanges have been there for some time. Some changes to minor detail in the latest edition perhaps, but not much.

It would be interesting to know how much the cost is now estimated to be. IIRC, $2bn was suggested when this latest incarnation was initially made public. It will be a sight to behold if ever built but that will depend somewhat on the stability of China's economic growth path.

Out of curiosity, why is the rail line being bridged over the northeastbound carriageway on the Northern Expressway and not the other way around ?

[Norman]

That document has been there for a good year now...

[ChillyPhilly]

Has it? Already? Either I've gone blind, or...

=/

Not good, Phil, not good.

[drsmith]

An entertaining justification for the Northern connector.

http://news-review-messenger.whereilive ... f-highway/

[Waewick]

[koalaboy]

An entertaining justification for the Northern connector.
http://news-review-messenger.whereilive ... f-highway/

What a load of crap. The developers want the Connector so that they can lobby the government for their own interchange to the development. This will make the land more valuable. Roads aren't built as dams, they have equalisation pipes under them so that the pavement doesn't fill with water and collapse. What happens when it rains heavily? The site will flood from the east instead of from the sea to the west. With Buckland Park and this site, the SES will be kept very busy. Luckily they will have freeway linking the sites.

Sorry, I am explaining something that was already implied by your post. Yes, a very entertaining justification.

[jase111]

Is this south australia first toll road ?

[Aidan]

Is this south australia first toll road ?

No. At the start of the Freeway in Glen Osmond there's the old tollgate, as that was (AFAIK) SA''s first toll road.

It's not even certain that the Northern Connector will have tolls.

[metro]

The Premier has said a few times that there will be no tolls roads while Labor are running the state. I think the only way there will be tolls in SA is if the Liberals get in at the next election and they get a private company in to build a new motorway, then it will be a tollway.