Bolte Bridge

[#Metro]

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

Video
http://media.canberratimes.com.au/national/national-news/bolte-bridge-bunged-up-1295981.html

This Bridge was built in 1999
Ten years on and it is full.

Its a lovely bridge. Looks good as a piece of art, but like most art...not really functional. 
Take a lane and put busway down it.

[#Metro]

Thanks.
Actually saw it on Bris. Times videos.
Will ask for it to be moved.  

This is QLD, Gateway bridge and Clem 7 in 10 years time!!!

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Freeway 'upgrade' buys traffic chaos

Freeway 'upgrade' buys traffic chaos
CLAY LUCAS
April 15, 2010

A COSTLY taxpayer-funded project to fix traffic problems at one of Melbourne's busiest freeway junctions appears to have backfired, with cars banking up for kilometres across the Bolte Bridge because of the changes.

The widening of the Monash, CityLink and West Gate freeways - at $1.39 billion the most expensive state-funded road project in Victoria's history - was promoted as a means to reduce trip times and increase the number of vehicles using the corridor each day.

But for about 8000 frustrated drivers who pay tolls to travel south over the Bolte Bridge each morning, it has made things worse. ''The Bolte has become the new West Gate,'' said Chris Roche, who uses the route daily.

Queues now stretch back across the bridge each morning as drivers crawl towards the West Gate Freeway off-ramp. ''It's obviously not working as well as we would like,'' CityLink spokesman Pat Wilson said of the changes, designed by VicRoads.

The problems began with the removal last year of a two-lane exit ramp from the bridge on to the freeway. The change was intended to reduce weaving when cars came off the bridge.

In place of the original exit ramp, two single-lane ramps were built: one to Power Street and the Burnley Tunnel, and one to Docklands and Kings Way.

Drivers are complaining that the designers got it badly wrong. The lane to the Burnley Tunnel is choked with traffic while the other is used far less.

The RACV also has concerns. Public policy manager Brian Negus said the project had solved problems with dangerous weaving between lanes. But having only one ramp to get so many drivers from the bridge to the tunnel had created a problem, he said. ''The number of people coming off the Bolte and into the tunnels does seem to be more than the road can cope with,'' he said.

Matt Shortal, who drives from Caroline Springs to Hawthorn each morning, said what used to be a 35-minute trip now took up to an hour.

Kate Stewart reports a similar experience. ''I'm paying for what I consider is a downgrade,'' Ms Stewart said.

Mr Wilson said the problems on the bridge during peak hour would improve when the rest of the road-widening project was completed this year. Better signage to be installed would also help deflect many using the wrong exit ramps, he said.

Nicholas Low, head of the Melbourne University transport research centre, described the project as ''a monstrous waste of public money''.

''When you build a large freeway improvement like this, it simply shifts the congestion from one place to another, and it then becomes the justification for more funding to remove the bottleneck,'' he said. ''What it doesn't do is end up saving people time.''

Roads Minister Tim Pallas said many motorists were still getting used to the complexity of the layout.

''Motorists (are) still becoming accustomed to changes that are a major departure from the previous layout,'' said his spokesman, Bill Kyriakopoulos.

And he said ''initial data'' showed travel times were getting better for motorists heading from the bridge to the tunnels. The changes had also made the West Gate Freeway much safer, reducing merging and weaving dramatically, he said.

[#Metro]

Matt Shortal, who drives from Caroline Springs to Hawthorn each morning, said what used to be a 35-minute trip now took up to an hour.

Kate Stewart reports a similar experience. ''I'm paying for what I consider is a downgrade,'' Ms Stewart said.

Mr Wilson said the problems on the bridge during peak hour would improve when the rest of the road-widening project was completed this year. Better signage to be installed would also help deflect many using the wrong exit ramps, he said.

Caroline springs is a new development on the very edge of Melbourne. Classic case of cheap houses, no public transport,far far away from everything...

[rob2144]

Caroline springs is a new development on the very edge of Melbourne. Classic case of cheap houses, no public transport,far far away from everything...

The train services are like those on the sunshine coast lol