Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Saturday 6 February 1965, page 3


SIX-LANE TUNNEL PLAN

Highway route to

be decided soon

Negotiations soon between the National Capital , Development Commission and the Australian National University will decide the route of what eventually will be Canberra's busiest highway.

The road, a six-lane highway, will link the city with the Woden

and Belconnen districts.

Its eastern end will meet Parkes Way at Commol* wealth Avenue between City Hill and the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.

It will sweep round West Basin, through the Acton Peninsula and round West Lake over bridges across Sullivans Creek.

There it will meet the expressway leading north to Belconnen and the expressway leading south across the proposed Yarralumla Bridge to Woden.

Belongs to university

Both this highway and the Yarralumla Bridge should be in operation by

J 973.

The N.C.D.C. is discussing the route of the highway with the A.N.U. because the land on the Acton Peninsula belongs to the University.

One proposal being considered by the A.N.U. is that the highway should pass through a tunnel under the Acton Saddle.

The tunnel would be about 400 yards long.

Eventually the

main link

The alternative appears to be a huge cutting, either covered or open, through

the area;

According to N.C.D.C. traffic projections the highway will carry about 72.000 vehicles a day when Canberra's population reaches 250,000 in about 20 years. This >vould make it the

Map of the highways' proposed route.

busiest road in the the Canberra of the 1980s they

say.

The Woden Parkway is expccted to carry. 68,000 vehicles a day and the Yarralumla Bridge 65,000 vehicles a day.

The Commonwealth Avenue Bridge is expected to car/y about, 40,000 vehicles a day 20 years from now, while the estimate' for the Kings Avenue Bridge is 17,000.

The Yarralumla Bridge will be twice the length of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.

It will extend from the Black Mountain Peninsula to Banks Street at Yarralumla, and will form part of the Woden Parkway.