COUNCILLOR Jamie Cregan has criticised Council’s promotion of the Ellerton Drive Extension (EDE) this week after new Council figures revealed that building the EDE would reduce traffic flows along Monaro Street by just five per cent by 2031.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Council fact sheets advertising the proposed 4.6 kilometre link road promote benefits including "a new route around the CBD" and "reducing congestion in the Queanbeyan CBD."
However Cr Cregan recently sought clarification from Council engineers on what percentage of traffic would be taken off the main street by building the EDE. He said the modest five per cent improvement meant the road would not function as a genuine bypass of the town.
"It backs up what I've been saying for months: It's a developer's road, it's not a bypass," Cr Cregan said. "It's not going to be this miracle thing that takes traffic out of the main street."
While Cr Cregan said an alternative route off Old Cooma Road was necessary to ease traffic flows from Googong, he said the case for the EDE, which is currently estimated to cost around $80 million, still needed more consideration by councillors and residents.
However Council's infrastructure manager Phil Hansen noted in his correspondence with Cr Cregan that the EDE offered additional capacity to the entire local road network as development progresses in the region.
"The EDE is not proposed to replace Monaro St," Mr Hansen said
"The EDE is needed to provide the additional capacity needed to accommodate the additional traffic that residential development will bring and will work in parallel with the rest of the Queanbeyan road network. All Queanbeyan roads will experience an increase in traffic as development proceeds.
"The residential development proposed for Queanbeyan in the next 20 years will increase the number of Queanbeyan cars on the road from about 22,000 now to about 47,000 in 2031.
Meanwhile, Jerrabomberra residents have taken an alternative view of the 'bypass' situation. Local residents' group president Michael Ziebell said Jerra residents were concerned that the loop offered by the EDE and Edwin Land Parkway might bypass the Queanbeyan CBD, but it would effectively split Jerrabomberra down the middle.
"The primary issues are that they're bypassing the Queanbeyan town centre and going through the Jerra town centre, and it's going to split Jerra in two: we'll have two separate sides," he said.
The period for public consultation on the Ellerton Drive Extension concludes on February 9. Residents are encouraged to attend the next public information session next Tuesday evening (5.30-7.30pm) at the RB Smith Centre, Crawford St.