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Am I the only one who thinks there should be an interchange at Flaxmill Road?

Having to go all the way to Beach Road is really annoying.

RetroGamer87 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 02, 2023 10:20 pm

Am I the only one who thinks there should be an interchange at Flaxmill Road?

Having to go all the way to Beach Road is really annoying.

I remember there being a lot of discussion around interchange placement for the southern end of the Southern Expressway when it was first being built. Beach Road was always going to be an interchange, but there were calls, or at least discussions, around interchanges at both Flaxmill Road and Honeypot roads. In both cases it was considered undesirable due to the close proximity to Beach road (both being just over 1km away) with relatively easy connections to both. The additional cost involved was a major factor too, but I also recall there being some concerns around inducing additional unnecessary traffic to both Flaxmill and Honeypot roads if interchanges were included for those locations or something along those lines.

I suspect there were also technical design issues with gradients & distance requirements for the on and off ramps and the close proximity of the ramps for Beach Road.

All the way to beach road? Isn't it one main road over and only 1km?

Archer wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:00 am

RetroGamer87 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 02, 2023 10:20 pm

Am I the only one who thinks there should be an interchange at Flaxmill Road?

Having to go all the way to Beach Road is really annoying.

I remember there being a lot of discussion around interchange placement for the southern end of the Southern Expressway when it was first being built. Beach Road was always going to be an interchange, but there were calls, or at least discussions, around interchanges at both Flaxmill Road and Honeypot roads. In both cases it was considered undesirable due to the close proximity to Beach road (both being just over 1km away) with relatively easy connections to both. The additional cost involved was a major factor too, but I also recall there being some concerns around inducing additional unnecessary traffic to both Flaxmill and Honeypot roads if interchanges were included for those locations or something along those lines.

I suspect there were also technical design issues with gradients & distance requirements for the on and off ramps and the close proximity of the ramps for Beach Road.

Interesting stuff. I guess it will never be practical to build an interchange on Flaxmill Road.

I understand why there's not a ramp at Flaxmill Road, and there is nothing significant in that area except the former CFS and St John stations (now moved to Beach Road for closer expressway access).

But it always bothered me that Flaxmill Road is such a great standard of road, entirely 2+2 lanes with a median for sheltered turn lanes from Main South to Dyson, except the roundabout and bridge, but has very minimal traffic.

Then Beach Road with a much higher traffic volume has 1+1 for the majority of its length widening to 2+2 for intersections. This needs Flaxmill Road standard and has since at least the 90's!

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neoballmon wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:01 pm

I understand why there's not a ramp at Flaxmill Road, and there is nothing significant in that area except the former CFS and St John stations (now moved to Beach Road for closer expressway access).

But it always bothered me that Flaxmill Road is such a great standard of road, entirely 2+2 lanes with a median for sheltered turn lanes from Main South to Dyson, except the roundabout and bridge, but has very minimal traffic.

Then Beach Road with a much higher traffic volume has 1+1 for the majority of its length widening to 2+2 for intersections. This needs Flaxmill Road standard and has since at least the 90's!

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Agree, Beach Road is a mess and should have been "fixed" many, many years ago. Definitely needs to be 2+2 lanes from South Road through the Dyson road with dedicated turning lanes at Goldsmith Drive, Morton Road & Elizabeth Road. Instead we've gotten piece meal minor upgrades that just move the bottleneck a few hundred meters, or are just side of the road beautification projects.

neoballmon wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:01 pm

I understand why there's not a ramp at Flaxmill Road, and there is nothing significant in that area except the former CFS and St John stations (now moved to Beach Road for closer expressway access).

But it always bothered me that Flaxmill Road is such a great standard of road, entirely 2+2 lanes with a median for sheltered turn lanes from Main South to Dyson, except the roundabout and bridge, but has very minimal traffic.

Then Beach Road with a much higher traffic volume has 1+1 for the majority of its length widening to 2+2 for intersections. This needs Flaxmill Road standard and has since at least the 90's!

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Is there old plans for Flaxmill Rd to be something more that it wasn't?
(And to a further aside, Panalatinga Rd)

neoballmon wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:01 pm

I understand why there's not a ramp at Flaxmill Road, and there is nothing significant in that area except the former CFS and St John stations (now moved to Beach Road for closer expressway access).

People live there. Commuting involves going to the city from home and from the city to home, right?

It's always bothered me that a lot of these interechanges including the one on Beach Road involve two seperate sets of traffic lights, one on either side of the expressway. Would it have been out of the question to build a single large round about that spans both sides of the interchange?

It all comes down to cost. That would require two bridges to be built, not one.

[Shuz] wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 12, 2023 4:36 pm

It all comes down to cost. That would require two bridges to be built, not one.

Yes and the duplication more or less matched the design of the one way freeway, which was built to the stingiest budget imaginable - I found out only recently (here I think) that it was built using department's operational budget ie not given any actual funding at the time.

Stingiest budget imaginable yet if they built both sides of the expressway in one go they would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. Stinginess and wastefulness often go hand in hand.

Speaking of saving money, building the Majors Road interchange during duplication would've no doubt saved a significant amount of money as well.

But, SA has never been great at forward-planning.

Spotto wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:59 pm

Speaking of saving money, building the Majors Road interchange during duplication would've no doubt saved a significant amount of money as well.

But, SA has never been great at forward-planning.

SA is great at forward-planning...not so good at delivering on those plans

Spotto wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:59 pm

Speaking of saving money, building the Majors Road interchange during duplication would've no doubt saved a significant amount of money as well.

But, SA has never been great at forward-planning.

At that time, the government didn't believe an interchange was needed there, so building it would have wasted money. The perception of need has changed, so now it is needed and not a waste of money.

Spending money before it needs to be spent might result in a lower headline cost, but with am opportunity cost that the money isn't then available to be used elsewhere. We have the same kind of issue with the new set of traffic lights that are the only set between the River Torrens and Port Augusta - a grade separated intersection will be needed eventually, but for now, lights are better than the previous uncontrolled intersection, and money is used on the Port Wakefield bypass and duplication of part of the Augusta Highway. Another example is that the current plan for a Truro Bypass only has one lane each way plus some overtaking lanes (and at-grade intersections), but an acceptance of needing to duplicate it "one day".

abc wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:12 pm

Spotto wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:59 pm

Speaking of saving money, building the Majors Road interchange during duplication would've no doubt saved a significant amount of money as well.

But, SA has never been great at forward-planning.

SA is great at forward-planning...not so good at delivering on those plans

No, we're culturally horrible at forward planning. We're competent at underplanning, however. I think this is an ongoing cultural quirk dating back to the 1970s and 1980s when Adelaide responded to urban challenges in ways that were affordable and effective - e.g. O-Bahn. We were something of a world leader in this.

However, what is affordable nowadays is not effective. We haven't quite adapted this as yet, and as a result good projects often lack some useful features or items that are costly to later retrofit or adjust - e.g. adding connections directly from the new Ovingham Railway Station to the new Torrens Road rail overpass.