Page 1414 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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The key to connecting the city to the lake is how we treat Parkes Way. It plays a vital role as a major traffic artery, although in its present form it is a major barrier; it isolates and disconnects the city from its waterfront and its main city parks. To overcome this barrier while retaining good traffic flow it is proposed to construct Parkes Way as a smart boulevard. It will be split level, allowing free-flowing traffic at the lower level and introducing local city streets at the surface.
Parkes Way will be transformed with traffic calming measures on Vernon Circuit and London Circuit. The new street development will improve access to West Basin residential and community areas and there will be strategically located multi-use car parks for events and commuter car parking. In addition, and critical to the linkage of the city and the lake, there will be a central interchange point for capital metro light rail and a new ferry terminal. Capital metro will complement, and integrate with, the work being undertaken on the city plan. Capital metro is an important project that can stimulate opportunity for growth and change and will also enable the development envisioned by the city to the lake project.
The proposed capital metro will be transformative for Canberra, providing a great opportunity to deliver sustainable rapid transport options and improving movement into and through the city. The project is the first stage of Canberra’s light rail network and will be the backbone of Canberra’s public transport network, combined with the frequent network of buses. As we have heard, the capital metro light rail will link the Gungahlin town centre to the city, along Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue. The terminus for this line will be located on Northbourne Avenue between Alinga and Bunda streets.
Both the national capital plan and the territory plan have identified Northbourne Avenue as part of the intertown public transport network. The capital metro project as outlined continues this vision. In line with a commitment to consider a future Canberra-wide rail network, future stages will connect through the city. The city plan provides the opportunity to establish how capital metro will enter and pass through the city in consideration of other changes that may occur. It will also identify areas of development potential along the light rail corridor to maximise the government’s investment and increase people’s access to the service. The city plan provides an opportunity to consider these options in a broader transport and land use perspective, as the plan will serve the whole city in ways more than simply a transport opportunity.
Capital metro provides an opportunity to influence the development pattern of a planned corridor from what is essentially a transport route between Gungahlin and the city, with little activity in between. Our vision is to make the corridor a vibrant and active boulevard and to create along Northbourne Avenue an approach route worthy of the nation’s capital. The redevelopment of this corridor will transform the territory by integrating land use planning with existing or planned infrastructure to create revitalised centres. It will also provide greater access to public transport, generate a range of housing and commercial opportunities and optimise land and infrastructure use. Intensifying residential and commercial development along the corridor is a critical factor to the success of this project. However, the release of land along the corridor will be staged to enable the responsible release of other land sites within the territory.
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