Page 3066 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 August 2008
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Let us get real about this. Let us put the debate into some context. In 2000 and 2001 when the Liberal Party talked about an extension of Gungahlin Drive, they meant the bit between the Barton Highway and Belconnen Way. That is right, Mr Speaker. They were only going to build a bit of the road. Their budget for 2001-02 set aside $32 million to build a four-lane extension plus tunnels in that section. An amount of $32 million would provide four lanes and tunnels—
Mr Smyth: And then Glenloch and Caswell Drive; don’t be misleading, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Hold onto your braces, Mr Smyth. It cometh out. You are about to be exposed. I suggest you get a loincloth because you are about to get exposed. $32 million would provide four lanes and tunnels—yes, tunnels—through the Bruce and O’Connor ridges! There was no provision and no plan for how traffic crossed either the Barton Highway or Belconnen Way, despite an entirely separate project to duplicate Caswell Drive. How did they expect a Gungahlin resident to get from Gungahlin, across the Barton Highway, go through the tunnels of Belconnen Way and then get to Caswell Drive?
Ms Porter: Possibly fly?
MR HARGREAVES: Well, maybe another tunnel. Fortunately for them, they did not have to answer this question because they were booted out of office and did not do any of it. But they did get to obstruct the Stanhope Labor government’s efforts to introduce a coherent, strategic approach to the whole road. Despite that obstruction, despite the intervention of the federal Liberals, despite the NCA, despite court cases, stage 1 of the GDE was opened to the public in April this year.
This fulfilled the commitment of this government to construct the road for the people of Gungahlin, and we built it in a short time frame. I remember as minister conducting the D9 symphony to signal the start of the actual construction. It is clear that this road is very popular and is heavily used by the public. These people opposite would have everybody believe that nobody likes it.
Some 29,000 vehicles a day travel on the section south of Belconnen Way; 29,000 people love it. It is also clear that there would be a great benefit to the community now if a duplication of the road were progressed. In anticipation of this and the need to invest in transport infrastructure to support the ongoing development in the ACT economy, the government had included the building the future program in the recent budget.
We had selective passage picking from Mr Smyth yet again. The building the future program enables early provision for projects required to meet transport demand as a result of urban growth. Projects such as Parkes Way, Majura Parkway and the Gungahlin Drive extension duplication fall into this category. On 23 July 2008 the ACT government announced that we would progress the duplication of the GDE over the next four years.
This simply confirmed in more detail what was already included in the budget papers. The duplication of the GDE is expected to cost $83 million in 2007 dollar terms and
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