Majura Parkway Redevelopment


Rob's picture

By Rob - Posted on 06 June 2009

Majura Parkway Redevelopment

It seems that someone down in Canberra has come up with a plan to redevelop Majura Parkway and turn from standard 2 lane road into 4 lane (+ shoulders) dual carriageway. Red line on the image here shows where they plan to put the road and the thinner orange line shows where it is now.

Note that the proposed road goes straight through the vineyard and some of the most established and iconic tracks in Majura Pines such as Intestinal Track, Pooklestein, Damn Track, BMX Berms.

While Majura is a working forest and we know one day it will be cleared (in stages, sustainably one would hope) building this road in the proposed location makes no sense. Sure, there are sharp corners to remove further South, but why can't they leave the existing route around the forest and vineyard? It's not like it has any sharp turns or hills there and can easily and safely be driven at the speed limit?

Can't find the submission address right now but will post it up when I do.

You can post your comments to [email protected]. I assume just about anyone here would think cutting Majura Pines up like this is a rather bad idea?!

Damien's picture

Its not a great development but also not all doom and gloom I have been following this thread on farkin http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?t... and Corc is on the job of trying to salvage at least some positives out of this road.

I am sure they would apreciate any help they can get.

Morgan's picture

Dept of Defence are moving their HQ to somewhere east of Queanbeyan and they have approval to put a new road in some 1500-2000 metres south of the existing Queanbeyan-Bungendore Rd, ie slap bang in the middle of the tracks at Sparrow Hill.

Same score as Damo mentions tho - CORC are onto it and I am signing up with them to try and do my bit as I'm now in the ACT. Rob, do you talk to anyone down there in their trails advocacy group? Maybe there should be some sort of pooling of resources, or at least knowledge sharing, in light of the large amount of advocacy stuff there is going at the moment in NSW & the ACT? Just a thought...

Bikeboy's picture

The ACT government and forestry are aware of the importance of Sparrow hill and will work in with CORC to overcome any issues there . From what i understand , there will be lengthy consultation before work begins

How did i get here ?

mtnbike's picture

They have been talking about ripping up majura since i was living down there (moved back to SYD 3 yrs ago) and it finally seems that they have official plans! I was also talking to Paul Cole, the guy who built most of Sparrow, and he mentioned about the military site! CORC are going to bat, they are trying to get underground tunnels in certain places so that the majority of the trails can stay in tact. unfortunately the 'new' road through Sparrow will cut right through bobsled:(
Thank goodness for Stromolo and some other spaces in Canberra!

Will Levy

gunnar's picture

Intestinal track and the damn track shouldnt be sacrificed. Perhaps a historical/heritage/cultural- significance angle could be pursued because of how old and central to mtb the area is, and how central to the riding reserve these tracks are.
The ground on the opposite side is a large buffer area for a police/defence secure training reserve, surely locating the extra lanes over that side, and calling the existing road the edge, wouldnt affect them at all.
This might be true of sparrow, but it looks like the land on the other side is private which might bring some additional obstacles.
The Queanbeyan bike advocacy group is called queanbug, cant find the email right this second but ive got a buisness card somewhere

gunnar's picture

The bike advocacy group here in quangers is called queanbug. I cant see why in the majura development, the lanes they want to build could not simply be added on the other side, leaving the edge of the road and reserve where it is. This is because the land on the opposite side of the road from intestinal and damn etc is just a large buffer zone for a police and defence secure training area, which must already be willing to be interfered with to build it anyway. Maybe a historical/cultural/mtb heritage argument could be worked up as well.

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