The North Canberra Community Council recently made a submission in response to the Majura Parkway Draft EIS.
The NCCC submission included 7 key concerns and recommendations.
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A full copy of the NCCC submission is also available for download in PDF format.
My submission in response to the Majura Parway Draft EIS:
I wish to register my total opposition to this proposal. It is yet another example of Roads ACT building yet more unnecessary roads at an exorbitant cost ($250 million for 11.5 km or $22 million per kilometre) – surely you are joking?
Some years ago Roads ACT claimed that the Gungahlin Drive Extension was essential for Canberra because it would provide a north-south route for traffic through the city. I see this is one of the major reasons for a new Majura Parkway. Here we are in 2009, the GDE has been built and of course it provides nothing of the sort, or else why would we need a four lane Majura Parkway on a new route? When completed to four-lane specification, the cost per km of the GDE will be the same as the proposed Majura Parkway – $22 million per km. Yet we have no light rail in Canberra while our roads become more and more congested, with less and less parking in City Centres that costs more and more. Roads ACT cannot be trusted. This proposal is outrageous and will not make Canberra a more liveable city. It will, however, ensure that Roads ACT remains a large and powerful government body by chanelling vast sums of money into what it likes to do best-build more roads.
In true Roads ACT fashion, the least destructive and least expensive options are ignored. If the road has to be upgraded (and after saying the GDE was needed to do this job, Roads ACT has little credibility) then it must be duplicated along the existing alignment. Now what would the cost be? Half the current $250 million estimate or less? We have no answer provided. As has been pointed out by others, an alignment based on a yet-to-be-built fast train is nonsense and cannot be taken seriously. And as usual, the interests of others (eg cyclist tracks in Majura Pines) have been scorned by Roads ACT.
It is time our politicians abolished Roads ACT and replaced it with a Department of Transportation that has the interests of a liveable city as its priority. Canberra desperately needs fast light rail connecting city centres and, contrary to Mr Hargreaves, building light rail does not cost billions if one connecting arm is built at a time – then even the ACT can afford it! Perhaps a Department of Transportation could champion light rail instead of the steady diet of massively expensive and unnecessary 4-lane roads we are being fed by Roads ACT.
Allan Lohe
Kaleen