Bridge lane closure adds to Kennedy Drive pain

25 October 2016

Traffic flow set to be very slow on Day 3 of reconstruction

Council is warning motorists to expect the worst traffic congestion of this stage of the Kennedy Drive upgrade tomorrow (Wednesday 26 October), as one lane of the bridge over Cobaki Creek will be closed adding to the pain of the roadworks.

The southern lane of the bridge will close no earlier than 10am to allow a repair of the eastern approach. This work is scheduled to take about four hours but will mean that traffic flow is down to one lane from west of the bridge through to Limosa Road.

Already, the one-laning on Kennedy Drive adjacent to the road reconstruction works is causing delays of 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the time of day and direction of travel.

Today workers reported a noticeable decrease in traffic using Kennedy Drive. There were no reports of any tailbacks on the Pacific Motorway and traffic flowed slowly but relatively smoothly throughout the day yet the traffic queue in both directions at 2pm stretched nearly two kilometres, from Lakes Drive to Gray Street.

Over the coming eight working days, westbound traffic will continue to be given priority as trucks ferrying materials to and from the worksite every few minutes are entering from and exiting to the east. Add to that, any tailback on to the Pacific Motorway is deemed an unacceptable safety risk.

The first trucks arrive at 7am and the last one leaves close to 6pm. So, again, Council urges motorists to clear the roadworks by 7am or go the alternate route via Bilambil and Terranora roads, adding up to 20 minutes to a journey. Afternoon commuters are urged to go the other way if travelling before 6pm.

Today the contractors achieved their daily target of applying 369 tonne of deep-lift asphalt for the day, adding to the 420 tonne applied yesterday and effectively raising the southern lane to its near-finished level from Limosa Road to Pioneer Park. Tomorrow (Wednesday 26 October), they will work west from Pioneer Park towards the bridge.

Road reconstruction began yesterday and will last another eight working days (to end of Monday 7 November) as the final task in this five-year, $9 million project to upgrade this major arterial road.

Downloads

Photo 1(JPG, 163KB)

Caption: Please avoid Kennedy Drive if possible until 7 November, especially tomorrow when traffic on the bridge over Cobaki Creek is reduced to one lane