Commonwealth Avenue Bridge is a vital link. Photo: NCA.
We all realised the needed strengthening works for Commonwealth Avenue, not to mention widening the paths, would mean some disruption, right?
Like light rail, it was coming.
But it’s just not something you think about. After all, we’ve negotiated the raising of London Circuit and light rail Stage 2A is making the city a mess but, hey, we’re surviving.
So many probably suspected a lane closure here and there would be the worst of it.
Nope. One span – we don’t know which yet – will close for a year, and then the other for another year. For the mathematically challenged that’s two years.
So for two years the volume of traffic that now runs over six lanes will be squeezed into three.
That is not a simple matter.
So why is it that the National Capital Authority, which is ‘managing’ this $137.5m project, opted to break the news by quietly posting a ‘notification’ with the innocuous headline ‘Commonwealth Avenue Bridge Renewal Update’ on its website a few weeks ago.
Not even on its home page. No media release. No social media post. No press conference. No morning radio.
No wonder Public Transport Association of Canberra Chair Amy Jelacic launched into the NCA when it was left to Transport Minister Chris Steel to deliver the bad news.
“The NCA does not seem to feel any responsibility towards the city of Canberra despite the enormous influence it has on the functioning of the city,” she said.
The contract for the works was signed in March so the NCA has known for some time what the impacts would be.
But even Mr Steel took his time to let Canberrans know about the biggest disruption to the traffic and bus network anyone can remember, assuming the NCA has been briefing the government on its plans.
The wider paths of the upgraded Commonwealth Avenue Bridge upgrade. Image: NCA.
According to Mr Steel, the NCA is expected to be doing some traffic modelling to help understand just how big the impact will be.
They’d better get a move on if works are getting underway later in the year.
Mr Steel is bracing for the worst, preparing commuters for cuts to weekday bus services across the network from February next year.
So much for the post-pandemic public transport patronage recovery.
Because the network is such a north-south configuration, the knock-on effects extend right across the ACT.
Understandably, Transport Canberra wants to run a network that can actually meet timetables, so that means less frequency and fewer buses to get stuck in the congestion the bridge clusterf… will generate.
Obviously, people will revert to their cars or demand to work from home full time if they can, to the despair of their managers and the CBD and surrounds businesses.
One can sympathise with Transport Canberra which is still dealing with the MyWay+ stuff-up and seems to reel from one drama to another.
The bridge works will need to be finished before construction of the next stage of light rail begins, sometime in the back end of 2028, and already the wags are talking about a decade of disruptions from the bridge to Callam Street.
No-one disputes the bridge project is a must, unless you wanted it demolished and a new one built. Imagine that disruption.
But the NCA has done Canberrans and itself no favours being so offhand about the matter.
For years the NCA had a reputation for staying aloof, not being answerable to the people who live here and earning the ire of the ACT Government.
That changed under the former CEO Sally Barnes, who courted the media, was more collaborative with the local government and was willing to be upfront about issues, whether one agreed with her or not.
A new chill has ended that brief thaw.
No-one likes dramatic change or disruption to routines. Many must feel exhausted. If not, the years ahead will test them.
But being open, informative and helping to minimise the fallout can bring people along.
The ACT Government has had plenty of experience in recent years. Let’s hope it can keep people informed and come up with ways to lessen the pain.
And the NCA can redeem itself.
