Article: No fix for Walter Taylor bottleneck

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

No fix for Walter Taylor bottleneck

No fix for Walter Taylor bottleneck
May 21, 2013 - 1:23PM Tony Moore

City Hall will never demolish and replace Indooroopilly's Walter Taylor Bridge, despite the area becoming a traffic bottleneck.

Brisbane City Council does not have a long-term plan to deal with traffic issues linked to the bridge, which now carries 30,000 vehicles a day.

It is waiting to see the impact of the Legacy Way tunnel before taking the next step, Deputy Mayor and Infrastructure Chairman Adrian Schrinner said on Tuesday.

"It's an iconic structure, we don't want to remove the bridge," Cr Schrinner said after the council's opposition leader Milton Dick questioned future traffic plans for the area.
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"I suppose any future proposal would involve a second bridge," Cr Schrinner said.

However Cr Shrinner said there was no money in the four-year Budget estimates, for any alternative proposal.

Cr Dick asked whether the council had begun planning for alternatives to eliminate the traffic problems around the bridge between Chelmer and Indooroopilly.

"The bottom line is that there is a hell of a lot of people who come in and out over that bridge who get stuck on the traffic on the bridge," he said.

"I am a bit concerned that the council does not appear to have any plans to relieve the traffic problems linked to the bridge."

Cr Schrinner said expanding Kingsford Smith Drive and an upgrade to Wynnum Road were the council's two next transport projects.

He said there was a major rail corridor through Indooroopilly, running over a rail bridge beside the Walter Taylor Bridge and a cycle path.

In 2010, the council explored an option to use riverside military land on the St Lucia side of Indooroopilly to expand the transport corridor, having also preserved land on the Chelmer side of the river in case a new bridge was feasible.

However then local councillor Jane Prentice, now Federal MP for Ryan, ruled out that proposal.

Four years ago, Fairfax Media demonstrated it took motorists 11 minutes and 17 second to crawl one kilometre along Honour Avenue to Walter Taylor Bridge.

Council speaks through its backside.  Rail corridor, but they won't support rail properly with buses.  What a bunch of wankers ....

[#Metro]

I have a very simple solution for this problem.

Very cheap
Very simple
Very rapid
No new major infrastructure

Want to hear it?

TOLL THE WALTER TAYLOR BRIDGE DURING PEAK HOURS

Done!

[ozbob]

History repeats ...

LD  perfect job mate.  You can live in the apartment on the bridge, just stroll down to collect the tolls.  Zero commuting ...

Love this vid ...  state of the art from Brisbane ...

[SurfRail]

^ Unless you happen to be this fellow.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/crane-rescues-300kg-man-from-walter-taylor-bridge-unit/story-e6freon6-1225764454983

[ozbob]

Yes, I remember that.  No one lives there now I think.

[James]

This is one bridge I think should be built. KSD upgrades are unnecessary, a several billion dollar tunnel was just put in to take people to the airport, if they still want to use KSD, they deserve to sit in traffic. By comparison, Walter Taylor commuters either have the M5 (which is also cactus in peak) or going via Fairfield/Ipswich Road (a non-option for most people).

A lot of the traffic is coming from the Chelmer to Oxley area, a lot of which already has reasonable access to PT thanks to frequent rail. Bus feeders at Indooroopilly, as such, I don't think will have a great impact on traffic with frequent rail. The river crossing is a bottleneck. A bridge should be built from Oxley Road around to the barracks in place of the current (mostly useless) footbridge if it can't be retained. To have no plan for upgrades in this area is dumb. Until Brisbane residents have a mentality shift regarding PT, rail's mode share isn't going to go much higher to be honest...

Not opposed to the toll idea, though. Give the residents the option to either pay a toll and get a second bridge or get nothing. Second step is to watch the residents whine, protest and blockade the road.

[#Metro]

The options are

1. Toll it
2. Do nothing
3. Upgrade rail
4. New Bridge

The best option IMHO is to combine #1 (demand management) with #3 (upgrade rail). The last timetable overhaul IIRC (can someone point out if they can) there were 5 extra trains added to peak hour on the Ips line. Plenty of capacity to absorb road traffic by rail. Often faster too.

There are enough cost pressures on Local, State and Fed Gov't and we are reaching a point where infrastructure is now totally and utterly unaffordable. Projects in the past that used to cost hundreds of millions of dollars are now costing tens of billions of dollars. Australia only has 20 million people, and already we are looking at a road here $10 billion, a tunnel there $10 billion, etc etc... it's too much!

Simple cost escalation pricing projects out of existence will force gov'ts hand IMHO to fund rail and also more services. There's only so much concrete, waste and inefficiency that we can afford.

[somebody]

The roads approaching that part of Brisbane don't have much spare capacity either.  You could probably connect Oxley Rd to somewhere around Lambert Rd with two lanes, but that's the most you could do.

[HappyTrainGuy]

1. HAVE A PROPER TRANSPORT NETWORK!

No need for tolls. No need for expensive duplicated bridges. Use the bloody railway line and local feeder buses. INTERCHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!RRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ozbob]

Exactly HTG.  BCC are a national disgrace ...

[ozbob]

The roads approaching that part of Brisbane don't have much spare capacity either.  You could probably connect Oxley Rd to somewhere around Lambert Rd with two lanes, but that's the most you could do.

Indeed.  My observations are that is getting worse by the day actually.   Congestion on the major roads is creeping further south and west in the morning and conversely in the afternoon/evening.  At times even on weekends the congestion is bad.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

22 May 2013

Walter Taylor Bridge and the traffic meltdown

Greetings,

Concerns expressed by Cr Milton Dick concerning the traffic meltdown out west of Brisbane.

No fix for Walter Taylor bottleneck  http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/no-fix-for-walter-taylor-bottleneck-20130521-2jy2n.html

Cr Schrinner is quoted as saying " ... there was a major rail corridor through Indooroopilly, running over a rail bridge beside the Walter Taylor Bridge and a cycle path."

Please note this is from a Councillor who cannot understand why the Brisbane Bus Network is broken, and why rail should be properly fed by buses.  What a hypocritical position by Council.

They attempt to justify their own flawed bus network on the basis that people  will not transfer, but then justify the reason for non action out west is that there are other transport options, namely rail.

It is little wonder that citizens are increasingly in despair with the level of understanding of transport issues at all levels of Government and oppositions - local, state and federal.

Brisbane is heading for massive transport failure.

There is a solution of sorts.  Peak toll the Walter Taylor Bridge and support the rail corridor with proper feeder buses  ... history repeating really. See this interesting historical film clip -->

Ho humm ....

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[johnnigh]

My father-in-law used to hide under the tonneau cover of a neighbour's ute when travelling to uni, along with 3 or 4 mates. Sometimes the tollkeeper would demand to see what was underneath, costing them all the per person toll.

Sounds a good solution for today, Bob.

Seriously, were a second bridge to be built it would drag traffic from the two motorways, Ipswich and Centenary/Legacy Way and convert Chelmer, Graceville, Sherwood, Corinda and Oxley into the same divided mess that afflicts other motorway divided suburbs. Already there have been mutterings about making Oxley Rd multi-lane for its whole distance. Naturally, we locals are in a state of confusion, with the short-sighted wanting the extra bridge and lanes, the clear thinking NIMBYs amongst us determined to resist. At least Jane Prentice listened. She also opposed parking restrictions on Oxley Rd for the same reason, that a clearway would speed the traffic and attract more of it, making things worse for Walter Taylor South and exacerbating Coonan St problems.