[COM] Birkenhead Bridge Upgrade Project

[rev]

The shared pathway on the bridge itself is perfectly fine. It's reasonably new, fairly wide & much improved compared to the old setup (ie no path at all). What needs significant improvement are the approaches to the bridge along Nelson St. There are good shared pathways just a couple of hundred metres north and south of the bridge, but in between there's some dodgy & confusing infrastructure - disappearing pathways & bike lanes etc, especially on the northern side.

Ok well that answers that. I haven't used that bridge in years, last time I used it it felt like driving on an unsealed road.
Yeh, the bike lanes that suddenly vanish are a problem all over Adelaide, for cyclists and motorists.

[Listy]

The shared pathway on the bridge itself is perfectly fine. It's reasonably new, fairly wide & much improved compared to the old setup (ie no path at all). What needs significant improvement are the approaches to the bridge along Nelson St. There are good shared pathways just a couple of hundred metres north and south of the bridge, but in between there's some dodgy & confusing infrastructure - disappearing pathways & bike lanes etc, especially on the northern side.

Ok well that answers that. I haven't used that bridge in years, last time I used it it felt like driving on an unsealed road.
Yeh, the bike lanes that suddenly vanish are a problem all over Adelaide, for cyclists and motorists.

The road surface looks terrible, especially on the lifting arms - the metal body of the arms has been revealed so much bitumen has worn away.

[marbles]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't part of the traffic planning for Port Adelaide to try and reduce heavy vehicles moving through the town center down Commercial Road? Moving the bridge in this way would actively encourage through-traffic.

Having a greater thoroughfare would bring more people to the area, people want a vibrant port adelaide but minimal population movement in the streets?

What a pain in the bum it is sitting at stvincent lights trying to turn right back onto commercial road after crossing the bridge

A direct throughfare to north haven, outer harbour even indirectly torrens island and semaphore the whole peninsula would boom, not sure what would suffer at port

Even emergency services to the peninsula would save time from port police station

Could almost boom to become a very luxurious area north of port adelaide

[Honey of a City]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't part of the traffic planning for Port Adelaide to try and reduce heavy vehicles moving through the town center down Commercial Road? Moving the bridge in this way would actively encourage through-traffic.

Having a greater thoroughfare would bring more people to the area, people want a vibrant port adelaide but minimal population movement in the streets?

What a pain in the bum it is sitting at stvincent lights trying to turn right back onto commercial road after crossing the bridge

A direct throughfare to north haven, outer harbour even indirectly torrens island and semaphore the whole peninsula would boom, not sure what would suffer at port

Even emergency services to the peninsula would save time from port police station

Could almost boom to become a very luxurious area north of port adelaide

[Llessur2002]

Having a greater thoroughfare would bring more people to the area, people want a vibrant port adelaide but minimal population movement in the streets?

What a pain in the bum it is sitting at stvincent lights trying to turn right back onto commercial road after crossing the bridge

A direct throughfare to north haven, outer harbour even indirectly torrens island and semaphore the whole peninsula would boom, not sure what would suffer at port

Even emergency services to the peninsula would save time from port police station

Could almost boom to become a very luxurious area north of port adelaide

There's a difference between vehicle movements and people movements in terms of increasing vibrancy. Vehicles moving through an area generally contribute little other than noise and air pollution, as well as impeding pedestrian movements. The rail spur which has sadly been dropped from the Libs' plans and routing light rail along Commercial Road would do far more for the vibrancy of the area than increasing the amount of through traffic.

[Honey of a City]

Building a bridge at the end of Commercial Rd won’t happen. It would involve the removal of the Port Lighthouse and the Birkenhead Hotel, and totally wreck the amenity of that Part of Commercial Rd where all the tourist facilities, galleries, pubs and restaurants with pedestrian activity and sidewalk art and dining are situated. The Birkenhead Bridge surface renovation will serve it well into the future. The current 2-minute diversion round to Nelson St is an insignificant inconvenience compared with the complete wrecking of the Port centre.

[rev]

Building a bridge at the end of Commercial Rd won’t happen. It would involve the removal of the Port Lighthouse and the Birkenhead Hotel, and totally wreck the amenity of that Part of Commercial Rd where all the tourist facilities, galleries, pubs and restaurants with pedestrian activity and sidewalk art and dining are situated. The Birkenhead Bridge surface renovation will serve it well into the future. The current 2-minute diversion round to Nelson St is an insignificant inconvenience compared with the complete wrecking of the Port centre.

It would not necessarily see the demolition of the hotel.
Bridges can be curved, they don't have to run in a straight line.




And why would it be doom for the surrounding shops?
Even if there was an elevated road closer to the water before tge bridge section, thats just another opportunity. There could be bars and eateries built below it.

[Norman]

Ok, I wasn't going to weigh in to this absurd idea, but what would the actual benefit be of such a bridge? I can think of only negatives.

- Loss of open space
- Loss of views
- Encouragement of through traffic, especially heavy vehicles
- Loss of trees and shrubs
- Loss of potential buildings, such as the empty block next to the light house
- Loss of car park space

[rev]

A better idea, instead of a new bridge, is to run a new route from the bridge, split left and right of the old church, down church street, go all the way down to the train line knock down coles and continue towards commercial rd, cut across it and past the aviation museum and link up to perkins drive.
Major route avoids the heart of the Port, amd they can turn into a more pedestrian friendly area and ban heavy vehicles.

[Hooligan]

Sorry, this whole idea is strange. If any new bridge was to be built across the Port River it should be from Osborne, and across Torrens island to meet with the NSM.

That way heavy vehicle traffic all along Victoria road and in the inner Port would be greatly reduced.

[SBD]

Ummm... wasn't a new bridge built about 12 years ago, along with a nice new road in 2005 to divert the heavy traffic away from the port?

To build across the Port River further downstream would lead to either a need for a much higher bridge, or more openings as there are more frequent large ship movements. I imagine it would also be quite bad for the mangroves etc if it needed towers built around Barker Inlet.

[Honey of a City]

A better idea, instead of a new bridge, is to run a new route from the bridge, split left and right of the old church, down church street, go all the way down to the train line knock down coles and continue towards commercial rd, cut across it and past the aviation museum and link up to perkins drive.
Major route avoids the heart of the Port, amd they can turn into a more pedestrian friendly area and ban heavy vehicles.

And rip through the new Port Plaza shopping centre soon to be opened, add another set of traffic lights to Commercial Rd, and end up at the expressway where they started.

[rev]

A better idea, instead of a new bridge, is to run a new route from the bridge, split left and right of the old church, down church street, go all the way down to the train line knock down coles and continue towards commercial rd, cut across it and past the aviation museum and link up to perkins drive.
Major route avoids the heart of the Port, amd they can turn into a more pedestrian friendly area and ban heavy vehicles.

And rip through the new Port Plaza shopping centre soon to be opened, add another set of traffic lights to Commercial Rd, and end up at the expressway where they started.

No, you'd loose a few car parks, footpaths and trees at most.
The coles could be rebuilt over the car park in front of it along with kmart, carpark could be underground. Or hell they could even move the coles & kmart to the port canal plaza proper and open up that land to a bowden style development with the Port train station very close by.
Church place on either side of that old church already has two lanes on either side, plus car parking, and wide footpaths.

[Honey of a City]

A better idea, instead of a new bridge, is to run a new route from the bridge, split left and right of the old church, down church street, go all the way down to the train line knock down coles and continue towards commercial rd, cut across it and past the aviation museum and link up to perkins drive.
Major route avoids the heart of the Port, amd they can turn into a more pedestrian friendly area and ban heavy vehicles.

And rip through the new Port Plaza shopping centre soon to be opened, add another set of traffic lights to Commercial Rd, and end up at the expressway where they started.

No, you'd loose a few car parks, footpaths and trees at most.
The coles could be rebuilt over the car park in front of it along with kmart, carpark could be underground. Or hell they could even move the coles & kmart to the port canal plaza proper and open up that land to a bowden style development with the Port train station very close by.
Church place on either side of that old church already has two lanes on either side, plus car parking, and wide footpaths.

Thing is, there’s no current or predicted traffic hold-up or issues in the Port centre. The expressway bridge has been very effective in diverting heavy vehicles from Techport and Outer Harbour away from the Port Centre, and Jervois Bridge has a very light traffic flow now at any time. Yep, smarten up Church St for sure, but sink the investment into the area’s public transport where it’s needed, like a rail spur line (whoops) and light rail.

[Eurostar]

The Port Canal redevelopment is bringing people into the Port Adelaide. The next project I think that should be done is move Foodland to Commercial Road or St Vincent Street and redevelop Commercial Road, many buildings need to be either bulldozed or fixed up. Commercial Road should be changed , I am thinking a bit like country town whereby there is single lane in each direction with a grass park in the median.