Page 1779 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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There is a way in which roads and road infrastructure have traditionally been developed by the NCDC prior to self-government and by successive ACT governments. We see it on William Slim Drive; we see it on Ginninderra Drive; we see it all around Canberra. The roads delivered initially reflected the then demographic, the spread of the population. I must say that I cannot think of any roads in the ACT—
Mr Coe: They did the bridge work back then, though.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, one moment, thank you.
MR STANHOPE: Well, the commonwealth did, yes. You didn’t.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope! Stop the clocks. Mr Coe, your interjections are excessive. Please keep it down.
MR STANHOPE: Anyway, I will not dwell on the point further than that, other than to say that it would be interesting in the context of this debate to simply reflect on the traditional methodology—and we still employ it. We have done it at Horse Park Drive. We have done it across the town. We have done it with Gundaroo Drive—I think that that is probably a Liberal Party road—and with Horse Park Drive and Gundaroo Road. It is interesting that the final section of Ginninderra Drive adjacent to Charnwood has still not been duplicated. William Slim Drive has not been duplicated. There are roads throughout the entire territory built by governments other than this government that are single lane and are awaiting duplication as demand requires.
That is the traditional approach. It is the approach adopted by the commonwealth prior to self-government. It is the approach adopted by the Liberal Party in government and it is the approach adopted by this government in government. I think that if we do that little bit of research on roads that were constructed during the period of the Liberal government, we will see that it is the methodology that was pursued by them in government.
In relation to the questions that Mr Coe asked—they are quite reasonable questions—we did in July 2008 commit to the duplication of the GDE at a cost of $85 million. We foreshadowed that it would be completed in June 2012. My latest advice from Roads ACT is that the road, the duplication, is likely to come in at $78 million. At this stage, there is an expectation that it will come in at $7 million under budget. At this stage, we are hopeful and expectant of the road being completed in December 2011.
I understand that the works at Glenloch Interchange, which are currently underway, will be completed by June, weather permitting. But the full duplication will be completed by December 2011, weather permitting. It will come in at $7 million under budget.
There has been considerable work undertaken by Roads ACT in consultation with the ACT government architect Alastair Swayn on some of the issues around aesthetics and material choice, particularly in relation to landscaping improvements along the
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