So despite climate change, Australia's federal government has just committed an extra $3.25 billion into building a toll road and a 20-lane freeway widening.
"Pouring an extra $3.25 billion worth of federal funds into Melbourne’s North East Link is a good use of taxpayer money, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted, despite the project’s cost doubling just a few months ago.
...
"The North East Link – which includes 6½ kilometres of tunnels – will stretch from Bulleen to Greensborough. It will widen the Eastern Freeway by up to 20 lanes.
"Allan revealed in December that the 10-kilometre toll road had more than doubled in cost since it was first announced.
"The toll road was initially budgeted at $10 billion and reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed last year that the updated cost estimate was $26 billion."
In Nepal’s sacred Tsum Valley, Buddhist community members are conflicted about the ongoing construction of a road that will pass through the region.
The Tsum Valley is one of the few, if not last, remaining beyul, or sacred valleys, governed by customary and Buddhist laws, where humans and wildlife have lived together in harmony for more than a millennium.
Koalas face habitat loss pressure by deforestation and sprawl. The verge of the road is their new home now.
"Urban koalas and ones in rural areas are not doing so well, they are continuing to decline at an alarming rate.This is a classic sign of loss of habitat and these animals having to struggle in areas where habitat has been removed...The number of koalas being hit by cars recently has been concerning..."
So the RTA's own modelling showed the Rozelle Interchange would be a traffic disaster—but generating more toll road trips for Transurban was more important.
"The [NSW Roads and Traffic Authority] finalised the first business case for the WestConnex tunnel project in June 2013, with the help of road designers from around the world.
"[Paul Forward, a former CEO of the RTA] said the initial concept did not include the Rozelle Interchange.
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"In 2014, an expert review group was formed to assess these plans.
"Mr Forward said it was at this point that TfNSW bureaucrats began to question the connectivity provided by the design.
"The RTA's former director of traffic Chris Ford told the inquiry that 15 alternative designs were modelled.
"Mr Ford said the modelling found that another motorway leading to the Anzac Bridge would cause congestion.
"'The issues that we see today were very clearly established in the modelling in 2014,' he said.
"In November 2015, after Mr Forward and Mr Ford were dismissed, TfNSW updated the WestConnex business case to include the tunnel to the Anzac Bridge, despite the congestion concerns raised by the modelling.
"In 2016, Transport for NSW updated the business case a second time ... creating a tunnel linking the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge."
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"In 2018, the NSW government sold its 51 per cent stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation, the body responsible for operating WestConnex, to Transurban for $9 billion.
"Mr Forward said the final design would generate a larger number of toll trips than previous options."
"It's going to be a bloody disaster": Tell me again about how the second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour won't make congestion worse?
"Civil engineer Les Wielinga, a former CEO at the now-defunct Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), made the fiery comments at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the bungled Rozelle Interchange.
"The Western Harbour Tunnel, which is under construction, will allow drivers travelling between the inner west and the North Shore to bypass the CBD.
"Entries and exits to the tunnel will lie at the Ernest Street interchange in Cammeray and near the Falcon Street interchange at North Sydney.
"'It's going to be a bloody disaster,' Mr Wielinga told the upper house committee on Friday.
"Paul Forward, another former CEO of the RTA, told the inquiry he was concerned about the project's design.
"'You've now got three motorways coming out into this short area, and whilst I would recognise there are some exit points, some off-ramps, those motorways are now all going into the Lane Cove Tunnel,' he said.
"'A large number of lanes are going into two lanes at the Lane Cove Tunnel. Sounds familiar?'"
'“We need to ensure that every child can walk or cycle to school safely”: All political parties – except the Conservatives – agree “children’s safety should be prioritised over the convenience of motorists” on “red-rated” road network, families say'
What’s so bad about a road?
Roads are forest killers.
"A road means access. Once roads are bulldozed into rainforests, illegal loggers, miners, poachers and landgrabbers arrive. Once they get access, they can destroy forests, harm native ecosystems and even drive out or kill indigenous peoples. This looting of the natural world robs cash-strapped nations of valuable natural resources."
“They don’t get much in the way of posthumous glory, but Roman surveyors have left us a wealth of technical treatises, collectively known as the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, which is of unique historical importance for its detailed descriptions of the nature of land settlement, and the role of emperors, especially Augustus, in regulating urban centers in a rural environment. Archaeologist David Gilman Romano, longtime director of the Corinth Computer Project, has been using the Agrimensores to understand the rural geography of Corinth and the nature of Roman re-settlement of the city… #GIS#spatial#mapping#surveying#surveyor#survey#instrumentation#ancientrome#roman#history#urban#buildings#aqueducts#roads#fortifactions#construction#engineering#design#archaeology#archaeologist
'Research from the UK’s biggest active travel survey, Sustrans’ Walking and Cycling Index, underlines there’s majority support for pro-walking and cycling measures. It reveals 56% of people support shifting investment from road building schemes to fund walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport, while just 17% oppose. Similarly, 65% support a pavement parking ban, vs 16% opposed.'
Based on Premier Ford's 2024 budget, Ontario's deficit will TRIPLE to $9.8 billion.
It is shocking how the #DougFord Conservatives are able to spend such an exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars while doing almost nothing to help #Ontario.
Cobbled streets, like Regent Moray Street in the West End of Glasgow, are nice, but it's important the stone setts are replace properly after any work is carried out on utilities beneath them, rather than just randomly chucking them back into a poorly filled hole as seems have been the case here!
One person driving 40 in an 80 zone is probably more dangerous than multiple people driving 90 in an 80 zone. At least based on what I saw today. #ottawa#roads
So WestConnex was totally going to solve traffic in Sydney by adding more lanes for cars. Just a few teething problems on the Rozelle Interchange and it'll all clear up, they said.
I wonder how it's going?
"Gladesville and Drummoyne locals say gridlock is worsening in their suburbs following changes to improve traffic flow through the notorious Rozelle Interchange, with drivers using local streets as “rat runs” to dodge congestion."
There was a time when the condition of American roads was used as an exemplar of JK Galbraith's characterisation of the USA as being patterned by 'private oppulence & public squalor'... so given the Tories desire to bring us ever closer to a North American political economy, the news that roads in England & Wales are getting ever more dilapidated should really be of no surprise....
Like the Americans, we'll just need cars with better suspension!
Meanwhile in Lancashire, rain is compromising pothole repairs intended to deal with the effects of rain.... welcome to the North West, where its more often raining than not.
Its a classic case of cheap running repairs being a false economy... & I know, I've seen the cycle of pothole, patched rapair, patch failure, pothole reappears pretty much every day I cycle round here!
Did you know that there's a place in #Europe that still has a #feudal system?
The #crown dependency of #Sark is a curious place. It has no paved #roads & #cars are forbidden, #women only got the right to inherit #property in 1999, & the whole island is, to this day, a fiefdom.
This means the #monarch is the head, with a #lord (seigneur here) as the executive power & the tenants (effectively liegemen) as the vassals.