The Gungahlin community has called on both political parties to commit to the duplication of all of Horse Park Drive, saying the weekend promises made were not enough.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Sunday, both the Labor government and the Liberal party promised to duplicate Horse Park Drive from the Federal Highway to Mulligans Flat Road, a stretch of 6km, costing $57 million.
Peter Elford, president of Gungahlin Community Council, said all of Horse Park Drive should be duplicated, with Gundaroo Drive and Gungahlin Town Centre requiring attention too.
"There is community frustration that these upgrades aren't planned for and aren't delivered before congestion becomes acute," Mr Elford said.
While a positive change more needed to be done for the Gungahlin community.
Mr Elford said the announced duplication plan was a good step up from the previous approach.
"It's still not the complete picture, but instead of just upgrading a piece where there's a specific bottleneck, it's actually upgrading a whole segment of road," Mr Elford said.
Gungahlin local Kris Brassington said public transport was preferable to the development of roads in Gungahlin.
"At the end of the day, if you're serious about the environment and about the people of Canberra, investment should be in public transport," Mr Brassington said.
Mr Brassington said he often used public transport to travel into the city, deterred by the cost of driving and parking.
"The major thing in Canberra is the parking expense," he said.
"Our public transport here, there's a bus every 15 minutes. There's no excuse not to use it."
The NRMA have also identified Gungahlin Town Centre as causing congestion, particularly with the government's proposed light rail project in Gungahlin.
"The access roads to town are mostly one lane and therefore compound congestion," an NRMA spokesman said. "The time delay of getting to the tram is such that motorists could find staying with their car for the whole journey is the quickest means of getting where they need to go."
The spokesman said the Horse Park Drive duplication was a necessity previously called for in the NRMA's budget submissions to the ACT government.
Gungahlin is emerging as a key seat for both parties in the upcoming election.
For the community, Mr Elford believed speed was of the essence.
"I'm convinced the sooner it's resolved, the better it will be and staging the upgrades across different roads is just fiddling at the edges."
