In 2022, I asked the question, "Do we really need to duplicate Athllon Drive?".

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

I'm asking it, again, but the nearly $100 million upgrade has been approved and will be under construction soon for the next two to three years. So, it's kind of a rhetorical question, if you will. Or, maybe, a cry in the dark.

The $98.55 million project, jointly funded by the ACT and Commonwealth governments, will duplicate traffic lanes on Athllon Drive, between Sulwood Drive and Drakeford Drive. (The extra bit of duplication of Athllon Drive, between Hindmarsh Drive and Melrose Drive, appears to have been put on the backburner.)

Full disclosure: I live close to the proposed works and drive that section of Athllon Drive pretty much every day. It's busy in the morning but not crazy. And it's over quickly. It's not gridlock. The rest of the day, that section of Athllon Drive is almost desolate.

The works will also put a new underpass under Sulwood Drive for pedestrian and cycling traffic. Part-time traffic lights will go in at the Athllon Drive/Sulwood Drive roundabout.

The roundabout on Athllon Drive as it intersects with Atkins Street and Langdon Avenue will be replaced by traffic lights. There will also be new traffic lights at the Vosper Street and Fincham Crescent intersections of Athllon Drive.

So five sets of traffic lights will be on a 2.4km section of Athllon Drive between Sulwood Drive and Drakeford Drive. One for almost every 500 metres!

Planning Minister Chris Steel is holding firm to his long-held view that the duplicated road will save bus passengers two minutes on their peak-hour trip between Tuggeranong and Woden.........

© Canberra Times