Make sure to count your blessings next time you drive along the swish Majura Parkway that runs along Canberra's eastern flank. And give thanks the ACT government has learnt major lessons from the mess of the GDE.
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In fact, it's true to say the parkway is the child of the Gungahlin Drive Extension.
If you say "GDE" to anyone who's been driving in Canberra for a few years, they'll probably groan as they recall the traffic chaos in its early days.
As soon as the two-lane road was built, it was jammed-packed due to the rapid rise in Gungahlin's population. Then the quick decision to duplicate the road caused further frustration for commuters as construction work caused traffic delays.
It was a steep learning curve for the ACT government but, pleasingly, the same mistakes were not repeated when the parkway was being planned.
"The GDE was messy ... there were lessons learnt and they were fed into the Majura Parkway," Tony Gill says.
He's the director of Roads ACT but, back in the day, he was the project manager for the GDE so he's definitely the go-to person for a comparison between the projects.
There's a striking contrast in the way the two were handled.
The budget for the GDE was forecast to be $32 million. It cost taxpayers $200 million.
The Majura Parkway was projected to cost $288 million – and that's what it did cost, despite one civil contractor going into voluntary administration and leaving 300 people without work.
The parkway was built in one go, not piecemeal like the GDE and, importantly, leaseholders were consulted.
Perhaps the biggest advantage was a decision on a route right from the start – not two contentious options as proposed for the GDE.
With the Majura Parkway completed, the torrent of after-work commuter traffic heading north is funnelled from two lanes to one at Horse Park Drive – putting the spotlight on this traffic bottleneck.
Both the Labor and the Liberal parties are now promising to throw money at this problem. The reason is clear – Gungahlin is a key battleground for the coming ACT election.
The third seat in Gungahlin is tipped as the one that will decide the election – the party that wins the majority of seats in Gungahlin is likely to form government in the Legislative Assembly.
Both parties are promising to duplicate Horse Park Drive, a major Gungahlin access road, from the Federal Highway where it meets the new Majura Parkway, all the way to Mulligans Flat Road, a stretch of about 6km, at an estimated cost of $57 million.
The timetable for the work is expected to be outlined in the ACT budget.
The Liberals are also promising to spend $60 million to duplicate Gundaroo Drive and about $35 million to build a flyover for the Barton Highway at Gungahlin.
When the GDE was being planned, the row was enormous, and the passionately opposed were chaining themselves to trees.
The option to build the road to the west of the Australian Institute of Sport brought claims the air pollution from vehicle exhaust would damage the preparation of athletes for the Olympics.
However, building the road to the east of the AIS was criticised as posing a danger to O'Connor Ridge and the Black Mountain nature reserve.
There was even a little-known plan to tunnel under O'Connor Ridge but the horrendous cost ruled out that option at an early stage.
A study commissioned by the ACT government and the AIS said the western alignment would create sleep deprivation, noise and dust.
"The proposed GDE is considered to pose greater problems with noise than with air quality," it said. "Athletes who are training intensively require more rest and sleep than the general population. Sleep impairment and-or deprivation can reduce sports performance ... Noise peaks will occur and have the potential to impair athletes' rest and sleep periods."
Concerns were also raised about noise generated by heavy machinery and the dust created during construction.
Coming into the 2001 ACT election, the Labor government was promising to build the road to the west of the AIS. The Liberal Opposition was promising an alignment to the east of the athletes. The project became a key election issue.
Labor won the election but was subsequently forced by the National Capital Authority to choose the eastern route. ACT Minister for Planning Simon Corbell said then the decision was "outrageous and arrogant".
As protests increased against possible damage to O'Connor Ridge, the Labor government changed the law to prevent further opposition from community groups. And when the two-lane road was completed, work began almost immediately to duplicate it.
As project manager of the GDE, Gill experienced the row firsthand.
"[The project] didn't define the route very well, it left some options ... that tended to be very contentious at the time," he says.
"The logic of staging [for the GDE] was it would support development in Gungahlin and subsequently a second stage would follow as further development took place in Gungahlin.
"Politics had a role to play in that and the second stage followed pretty quickly.
"Technically, from the project's point of view, it would have been easier to have done it all in one go.
"It would also have been less disruptive to the community.
"It would have also saved costs – one establishment instead of two, one tendering process."
The Majura Parkway was promoted as a freight link for loads from southern NSW going to Sydney and Melbourne and for produce from the Riverina heading to Canberra airport to catch a direct flight to Asia.
"It was well developed, had a good technical basis and was identified as one of the national priority projects," Gill says.
"Because it was a technically good project, it was seen as a national priority, the territory was prepared to fund half the money – it got up."
The big tick of approval came from Infrastructure Australia, whereas the Gungahlin light rail project was not successful.
"Tactically and strategically, the Majura parkway project was better developed [and] delivered than the Gungahlin Drive Extension project – which was the first major road project the territory had delivered – we acknowledge that there were some learnings from that," Gill says.
The GDE was planned to run next to the equivalent of a national park, the Black Mountain Reserve.
"The Gungahlin Drive Extension was more challenging in terms of trying to get agreement and also because it hadn't been as well developed," Gill says.
Learning to listen was a key to the smooth development of the Majura Parkway.
"Gungahlin Drive generated a lot of community angst or opposition whereas, in contrast with Majura Parkway, the vast majority of the community input has been supportive," Gill says.
"By the end of the Gungahlin Drive Extension project, we had a good process of consulting with affected groups … but at the start of that process, we didn't.
"With the Majura Parkway, for the last six years we met every two months with leaseholders to talk through the issues, so that was a learning from the Gungahlin Drive Extension."
Looking at a large scale map of Canberra on the wall of his office, Gill uses his hands to sketch the underlying philosophy of the road system – two north-south parkways and several east-west arterial roads.
While the Majura Parkway project was completed under the gaze of a Liberal federal government, it was funded by the former federal Labor administration.
In February 2013, then federal infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese and then ACT chief minister Katy Gallagher turned the first sod on what would become the largest even road project in the nation's capital.
The road has three underpasses for stock and wildlife and and off-road shared user path for pedestrians, cyclists and horses, which runs along the entire length.
For the formal opening of the parkway, the southbound lanes were blocked off at the bridge over the Molonglo River.
For a few hours, traffic was forced to snake around the bridge, using surface streets, prompting one truckie to shout a fusillade of abuse at the guests on the bridge for the event.
The bridge was named after former prime minister Malcolm Fraser. Zed Seselja and Andrew Barr joked with scissors but managed a perfect ribbon cutting.
Tamie Fraser charmed the audience, saying she wouldn't have missed the occasion "for quids".
Her voice wavered as she paid tribute to her late husband for his work.
"My old boy's bridging efforts had a few holes in them at times but his core purpose in life and much of his legacy was to endeavour to bridge the many differences both national and international at many levels that he encountered over a long life in the public arena."
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the continuous freeway link between the Federal Highway and Monaro Highway was a milestone event for the ACT.
"From a national perspective, it will improve an important freight route," he told invited guests at the opening.
"From a regional perspective, it will provide better access to Canberra Airport and will add to the capacity of the main road network, with an estimated 40,000 vehicles, including 6000 trucks, to use the parkway each day by 2030.
"With international flights to begin operation in our city shortly, it's timely that we have this project completed.
"The project has helped deliver hundreds of jobs to our city and has kept our economy going throughout recent difficult economic times for our city."
While the new road sliced some land from leaseholders, they welcome the opportunities to come with the new road, such as extra tourists.
But what they really want is certainty of tenure. They have been left dangling for several years, after their leases expired.
Their case is being pushed by Sherry McArdle-English, chair of the Majura Valley Landcare Group.
She recently sold French Black Truffles of Canberra which hosted a successful visit by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, last year.
Her group undertook a feasibility study on what was possible and has subsequently developed a blueprint for the Majura Valley.
"That vision involves primary production, protecting the native woodlands and grasslands and creating communal gardens and a community hub that would be promoted by tourism in the valley," she says.
"People would be able to come and visit and enjoy the nature of rural life, just six kilometres from our national capital city and the parliamentary triangle.
"Being able to put a plan in place like this is the last opportunity, there is nowhere else in the world where this opportunity still exists, to preserve and develop further native bushland and woodland so close a national capital city."
She found most of the leaseholders have business plans in place.
"They have a wonderful array of future plans for their individual properties in the Majura Valley but this is only possible if they are able to secure 99-year leases," she says.
"All of the leases were due to roll over by 2007 and currently none of the leases in the belly of the Majura Valley have been renewed.
"All of the leaseholders currently live on a 90-day withdrawal clause on their properties, it's been really crushing for them that they haven't been able to renew their leases.
"The ACT government has explained that no future plans would be able to be decided on until the road was completed and the land in the valley held by Defence and the Commonwealth was sorted out.
"That would happen at the time of the road being completed and then would be the time to look at the potential for the leaseholders in the Majura Valley being able to remain."
The ACT government and Defence and the Commonwealth are in discussions about land use.
"They are currently trying to come to a resolution of what exactly the Commonwealth and Defence are still requiring and once that is established – which I understand is being looked at currently –then the next step will be for the ACT government to start having discussions with leaseholders on what's possible in the valley.
"Using the Majura Parkway as a stage for the Majura Valley – what a wonderful opportunity."
The ACT government hopes to have leases finalised in the northern section of the valley by the end of the year.
Much sooner than that, however, will come the next step in the project – erecting signs to tell motorists they're driving on the Malcolm Fraser bridge.
