Page 2247 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2022
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The ACT section starts in Tennent at the intersection of Naas Road, Top Naas Road and Boboyan Road and traverses south through the Namadgi National Park to the southern border of the ACT. Bobeyan Road, with an “e” then continues into New South Wales to Shannons Flat and Adaminaby. It is for all intents and purposes the same road, despite that change in spelling.
Boboyan Road’s current function is to provide for travel between Tharwa and Adaminaby and to provide access to the adjacent farms in Namadgi National Park. In the ACT, the road is classified as a “territorial rural road” and is an Austroads class 3 road.
The use of the surrounding region for recreational activities leads to marked seasonal variations in traffic volumes. On weekdays, the road primarily serves local traffic and Namadgi National Park management traffic. Boboyan Road is most heavily trafficked during weekends for recreational activities, with average weekend traffic approximately twice the frequency of weekday traffic in each direction.
Many of our regional and rural roads require investment over time from government to ensure that they continue to service and connect people in the ACT and our region. Approximately 8.5 kilometres of Boboyan Road within the Namadgi National Park remains unsealed and regularly experiences significant corrugation and pothole issues, especially following the wet weather that we have been experiencing over the past few years.
The ACT government has been investing recently in upgrades to Boboyan Road, which has included road surface resealing, carriageway widening, line of sight improvements and installation of warning signage. All roads require upgrades for maintenance and safety over time. And many of the same issues arise across a variety of regional roads in the ACT, some of which are largely unsealed and patently not urban, such as Boboyan Road, Smiths Road, Naas Road, Brindabella Road and there are others as well.
As the ACT government invests in these roads, we do expect to get a fair deal from the commonwealth—the same share of funding for the same regional roads. When it comes to funding roads, the ACT government works with the Australian government under the national land transport framework to jointly fund upgrades. Parties to the national partnership agreement aspire to deliver a national transport system that is consistent with the objectives of the National Land Transport Act 2014. This includes providing a national transport system that is:
… safer and more secure for users, drives national productivity and economic growth, accommodates Australia’s growing population and supports competitive markets and employment opportunities.
The problem is that the Australian government defines their urban and regional categorisation based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics Greater Capital City Statistical Areas. This would not be the first time that we have been disadvantaged by the ABS approach. What it means is that the urban and regional categorisation identifies that all of the ACT is considered urban.
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