Released 16/01/2020
Residents of Weston Creek and Molonglo will see their daily commute time reduced by up to five minutes with a dedicated continuous lane to be provided from the Cotter Road ramp onto Adelaide Avenue.
With the Cotter Road now carrying up to 25,000 vehicles a day, and traffic expected to grow to up to 35,000 cars by 2031 with the further development in the Molonglo Valley, the ACT Government has been undertaking detailed traffic modelling on improvements to the road network on Adelaide Avenue and surrounding streets.
“Currently traffic from the Cotter Road has to merge with traffic on Adelaide Avenue, creating a bottleneck on both major roads,” Minister for Roads and Active Travel, Chris Steel said.
“The traffic modelling shows that the addition of a continuous lane on Adelaide Avenue from the Cotter Road on ramp, will improve traffic flow for Weston Creek and Molonglo commuters whilst not significantly affecting Northbound traffic from Woden.
“With the Government undertaking scheduled resurfacing works on Adelaide Avenue from next week, we are taking this opportunity to make changes to the operation of the road network to address congestion on the City’s major Southern gateway,” Minister Steel said.
Under the changes, the Cotter Road on-ramp will continue onto Adelaide Avenue and become the left-hand lane. The T2/Bus Lane will be discontinued for a distance and will merge with regular traffic in the middle lane, providing three lanes of traffic city bound. The T2/Bus Lane will be reinstated on Adelaide Avenue when the road opens up to four lanes just north of Hopetoun Circuit. No changes are being made to the Southbound lanes on Adelaide Avenue.
The data shows that as a result of these changes, commuters using Cotter Road will benefit from up to a five-minute reduction in their travel time during the morning peak periods, with the modelling showing commuters on Adelaide Avenue from Woden only experiencing a minor 5 second delay.
“Bus users on the Cotter Road will benefit from improved run times for Transport Canberra’s Rapid 7 and 10 services, helping to make the Rapid Network faster and more reliable,” Minister Steel said.
“The T2/Bus Lane will still remain for most of the length of Adelaide Avenue providing priority to public transport and vehicles with passengers.”
Only approximately 300 vehicles per hour currently use the T2 Lane, including approximately 30 buses between 8am and 9am.
Works will be delivered in two stages and involve resurfacing of the Adelaide Avenue stretch of road due to commence during the week of Monday 20 January. New line marking and signage will be installed with the first stage expected to be complete before the start of the new school year in the first week of February 2020. A second and final stage of works on Adelaide Avenue will be delivered a month later with final asphalt resurfacing and line marking.
- Statement ends -
Chris Steel, MLA | Media Releases