[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[how good is he]

From their website - CROYDON KINGS WILL PLAY AT POLONIA RESERVE IN 2019! We were advised that we will have 1 more season at our historic home ground before moving.
So this puts the earliest start date at mid/end August (end of the season) before work can start for this section.

[SBD]

From their website - CROYDON KINGS WILL PLAY AT POLONIA RESERVE IN 2019! We were advised that we will have 1 more season at our historic home ground before moving.
So this puts the earliest start date at mid/end August (end of the season) before work can start for this section.

Before trucks or bulldozers need to drive across the reserve, there is a lot of properties to be acquired and demolished, which I don't think has happened yet. Has a construction contract gone out for tender yet?

[Eurostar]

When work is being done on tunnel in Mile End/Hilton area maybe the State Government can look at allowing right turns from James Congdon Drive into Sir Donald Bradman Drive (eastbound). James Congdon Drive I'd imagine will become the detour just like Gallipoli Drive was the detour route whilst the South Road Superway was being built.

[how good is he]

No I don't think any tender has gone out, they are probably still to finalise plans. Soon I would expect that the notices, then valuations on properties being acquired & then negotiations to begin. I would expect they would allow 9 -12 months time for people to move out, so maybe Sept/Oct 19 they could start all the demolition.

[Llessur2002]

Apparently T2T/DPTI are in discussions with the City of Charles Sturt about reducing the quality of landscaping which will be carried out around the T2T project area (i.e. not delivering what countless renders and animations have shown). There have a been segments on ABC 891 over the last couple of mornings, Stephan Knoll responded, albeit vaguely, to residents' concerns yesterday.

I'm not sure exactly what landscaping has been undertaken yet (it doesn't look like much to me) but I think the main problem at this stage is that the South Road nature strips are being laid with compacted rubble instead of the grass and trees shown in the renders. The image that's being banded about on Facebook is this:



To be fair, if that's the finished landscaping (which apparently T2T have confirmed it is) that's a bit poor.

I took a walk along there a few days ago and the way the rubble has been laid it certainly looks like a final finish - why bother laying it if it isn't? The nature strips have been happily left sitting as bare dirt for the last couple of years.

It will be a shame if there aren't a few trees planted as otherwise that means there will be 3km of new footpaths which will essentially be unusable in hot weather (especially with that nice concrete wall acting as a heat sink). It's pretty barren along there...



Fingers crossed that this is a misunderstanding and that things will still progress as planned. Stephan Knoll was saying on the radio yesterday that the bulk of the landscaping has now been pushed out to mid next year due to summer being upon us - I still have an email from T2T telling me it was definitely being started last September. So much for the project being completed on time...

I do find it disappointing that quite often in these large infrastructure projects, pedestrians and cyclists seem to be a somewhat forgotten afterthought. Look at the rail bridge over South Road for example - you can apparently build an entire bridge and get trains running over it within a one month period, yet completing the pedestrian path tacked onto the side of it takes 12 months+

[rev]

What's a let down in that last photo is that the bus stop is on the road.
They've gone to the trouble of spending $800 million on the section, and the least they could have done is add half decent bus stops that don't impact the flow of traffic as in the past.

[SRW]

To be fair, the majority of the traffic will now flow through the trench. I think bus indents have fallen out of favour, especially where bike lanes are employed.

But that better not be the final landscape treatment - trees for shade please!

[claybro]

Fingers crossed that this is a misunderstanding and that things will still progress as planned. Stephan Knoll was saying on the radio yesterday that the bulk of the landscaping has now been pushed out to mid next year due to summer being upon us - I still have an email from T2T telling me it was definitely being started last September. So much for the project being completed on time...

Pushed out til mid next year in the hope that everyone will forget about it more like. Adelaide is really let down by poor landscaping of main public arterial routes, whereas the other capitals are making great strides in this area. Look at how the "landscaping" of the Port road tram extension ended up. Even the "landscaping" of Gallipoli underpass was looking very bedraggled last time I was there-and that is meant to be a memorial of sorts-as is Anzac highway.
As for discussions with Charles Sturt council...LOL. given their efforts at areas such as the Port road median, I doubt they will be too fussed.

[kenget]

Didn't see it for myself but I heard that traffic was running on the new Sturt Road bridge this morning.

[rev]

To be fair, the majority of the traffic will now flow through the trench. I think bus indents have fallen out of favour, especially where bike lanes are employed.

But that better not be the final landscape treatment - trees for shade please!

You're not going to get on the motorway heading north if you plan on getting off at Port Road or Torrens Road, as there's no off ramps. So a considerable amount of traffic will still use the surface road.

And if all they've done is add a dirt or rubble based finish to what should be landscaped with trees, it's not that difficult to plant trees later.
My guess is the responsibility will be passed on to the local councils.

[Llessur2002]

Updated landscaping plans are apparently being published by T2T within the next week...

[Mpol03]

Like anything in this city, I’m sure they are scaling back and going for a desert dirt road finish and leaving everything bare...

[ChillyPhilly]

Well that finally explains the bus shelter-looking things protruding from the noise wall at several locations along the project.

[SBD]

Well that finally explains the bus shelter-looking things protruding from the noise wall at several locations along the project.

The shelter thing looks further along than the bus stop in the photo. The bus should pull up with the door in front of the textured paving to help blind people.

[Bacon]

Re. T2T landscaping, they’ve just installed pop-up sprinklers along the southbound surface road off ramp, I think we should wait and see the final product.