Australian Motorways

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booshank
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by booshank »

crazyknightsfan wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 01:13
Berk wrote: Thu Feb 06, 2020 22:38 Not just there, anywhere. Except in Tas, they seem a bit more used to unsealed roads (although there aren’t that many more than on the mainland).

Working out where to go in Australia, it was crucial to understand which routes used sealed roads, and which ones didn’t.

Given that you’re not covered for “off road” stuff (and that includes unsealed roads), I decided to give them a miss. Maybe another time.
Lots of rental companies will let you take their 4WD vehicles on unsealed roads, I do it all the time. But the Tanami Road, and a handful of others, are specifically listed as 'no go' roads even for 4WDs in most rental company Terms.
I hired a rental car in Cairns and they were very clear about no unsealed roads and the geographical limits it could be driven in. Basically listing the points on all significant roads west of which it was forbidden to drive. Presumably to avoid you driving too far into the outback and being too far away if you broke down and got into difficulty. It was a few hours drive west of the coast where settlements got very small and far between. I did drive to Undara which I found was a few kilometres outside the limit, but fortunately there was no tracking...

I don't think I encountered any motorways. The Townsville ring road was being upgraded and probably didn't count, and there's a short stretch of grade separated Bruce Highway approaching Cairns from the south but I don't think that counts either.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

Another Australian city motorway map - Canberra.

AU Motorways ACT.png

'Motorway' and 'Canberra' in the same sentence is almost an oxymoron: the city is unlikely to increase its number of motorways beyond the current three-ish. It has a north-south motorway down each side and one E-W motorway across the middle. They each need some works to reach full grade separation.

Other main roads are high-quality urban S2/D2/D3, with no property access, and mainly flat intersections, which include T's, crosses, roundabouts and an extraordinary number of 'Seagulls'.* The roads form the boundaries of self-contained neighbourhoods about 3km across (think Milton Keynes). Many of them have sufficient space to be upgraded into motorways, but only a few might be, and that's far off. Travel by car is easy and pleasant - there's little congestion.

The city, capital of AU, occupies its own mini-state: Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It lies one third of the way from Sydney to Melbourne, 60km off the Hume Freeway, set around an artificial lake and surrounded by low mountains. It was founded about 100 years ago, built from scratch to a visionary 'garden city' design. The half-million population is 'green', left-leaning and relatively affluent, so, although currently sprawling, Canberra's determined to reform and become denser, multi-modal, active, etc. A light rail line opened recently, and stages 2 to 5, partially wire-free, are planned. Above all, it's neat and tidy and rational - to such a degree that many Aussies consider it sterile and boring.

In road-geek terms, it has nothing remarkable**: no mega-carriageways, no weird intersections, no innovative smart technology. It just gently works.

edit : * I don't know whether the name 'Seagull' is widespread or is an Australianism. The intersection type comes in a variety of sizes, and is occasionally signalised. Here's one -
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/29 ... ?entry=ttu

edit : ** Though Jackal did kindly point out, a few posts down-thread, that the State Circle interchange is rather remarkable.

(multiple other edits to update the map)
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Fri Apr 26, 2024 15:34, edited 9 times in total.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

Introducing a significant and interesting road project underway in Melbourne: The Westgate Tunnel (being built 60 years after its namesake in Leeds, UK).

Westgate Bridge was completed in 1978. It crosses the estuary of the Yarra River, and carries the M1 motorway into the city from the west. Its D5 lanes are now full. Various east-west relief schemes have been proposed over the years, and one almost started building (it was de-railed by an electoral stunt). Finally this one got over the line as it was an 'unsolicited proposal' from, and mainly funded by, toll-road company Transurban. Actually, it will only slightly relieve the bridge and will not solve Melbourne's E-W problem, but it will have various benefits of its own.

Its components are -
(a) widening the Westgate Freeway from D4M to Q3 M/ALR, the inner carriageways being express to the bridge,
(b) a new D3 ALR tunnel, leading to a new bridge over the Maribyrnong River,
(c) new elevated roads providing connections to the docks and the city.

Construction began in 2018, with completion expected in 2025 (originally 2022: delayed by 3 years after contaminated soil was detected on the tunnel route).

The project website is here: https://westgatetunnelproject.vic.gov.au/#
A design overview video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEgmyLY ... mb_rel_end

Interesting points in the video:
0:10 Provision for an additional interchange bridge, when the M80 is widened (soon).
0:30 Note the blue signs for toll roads, green for free roads (a Melbourne-only convention, I believe).
0:40 Motorway-to-motorway metering, with width-flaring at the signaling points (strangely, the artist forgot to draw the signals!).
3:57 Tunnel portals and vent stacks have a striking design.
4:27 Ramp metering on the on-ramp near the tunnel northern entrance.
4:33 Blue sign 'MX', because a number for the toll road has not yet been publicly allocated (but probably M4). Edit: M4 confirmed.
6:15 The video from this point covers the complicated city-end connections, and is rather confusing if you don't know those Melbourne roads - sorry!

Enjoy.

edit: A more recent video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOYPaIVuGls
(other episodes in that series can be found at -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOYPaIV ... hr&index=1

edit 22-02-2023: Inbound tunnel breakthrough occurred today: 295 days for 2.4 km.

edit 09-05-2023: Outbound tunnel breakthrough occurred a couple of days ago: 415 days for 3.6 km. News -
https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/projects/we ... el-tracker

(i)edit 2024:[/i] For a balanced view, here's a current affairs news segment covering the project, still building at mid-2023 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZTmpAXpSaU
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Sun Oct 27, 2024 11:19, edited 8 times in total.
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jackal
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by jackal »

Peter Freeman wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 08:38 In road-geek terms, it has nothing remarkable: no mega-carriageways, no weird intersections, no innovative smart technology, etc.
This interchange is quite remarkable, with the parliament building as its centrepiece!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@-35.3086 ... 003,16.27z
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

Well-spotted Jackal. That one is indeed remarkable. It often escapes my attention as an 'interchange', since (a) it is large/spread-out and (b) I tend to think of it as just part of the ceremonial roads or 'show-roads' of Canberra. Of course it is an interchange and it works nicely. It's free-flowing for the most important movements, ie. between Commonwealth Avenue and Adelaide Avenue. Those two roads effectively form a short but important freeway between Civic (the CBD) and Woden, a nearby large suburb.
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by ChrisH »

The NorthConnex tunnel opened over the weekend, which fills in the missing link in Sydney's regional motorway network. It's now possible to drive from Melbourne to Newcastle on motorways, and in a couple of years when the Coffs Harbour bypass is built all the way up to north of Brisbane apart from the one junction at Newcastle/Hexham.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by ChrisH »

The last section of the Pacific Motorway/Highway opened earlier this month, completing a four-lane highway between Sydney and Brisbane as part of a programme established in 1996. There's a good website with e-book commemorating the completion of the programme.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by jackal »

The ebook is interesting - the modern equivalent of a mid-twentieth century British celebratory publication. Our well-engineered roads are now treated as dirty secrets, to be hidden behind A road numbers and green signs.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by sydneynick »

Actually, you can travel on four-lane highway some 2000 km from west of Ballarat in Victoria to just south of Gympie in Queensland, apart from that short stretch near Hexham. Almost all of this distance is motorway, the main exception being around 15 km through Coffs Harbour which is S4 with 60 or 50 km/h limit.

I think the reason that the Coffs Harbour by-pass has been left until last is that it is going to be very expensive. Most of the NSW coast has a narrow coastal plain and then a steep escarpment up to tablelands that slope gently to the west. At Coffs Harbour, the town occupies all the level land between the sea and the escarpment. The 14 km by-pass will have three fairly long tunnels. Some information at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-09/ ... d/12964130
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

jackal wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:34 The ebook is interesting - the modern equivalent of a mid-twentieth century British celebratory publication ...
I like this type of publication. I know that some Sabristi have collections of such memorabilia. I have a book (in hard copy) from ages ago when the duplication of M31 Hume Hwy (Melbourne-Sydney) was virtually completed. Here's a link to one from about 12 years ago on the M3 Eastlink Tollway in Melbourne -
https://www.eastlink.com.au/assets/lega ... rpiece.pdf
(edit: dead url fixed)

edit: Here's another such publication, recording and celebrating the Citylink project in Melbourne. It's a longer and heavier read than the Pacific Highway and Eastlink ones, but interesting if you have the time. It's of-its-time: engineering has advanced, including tunnelling and tolling. Of interest to some in Sabre may be the knife-edge financial risk negotiations to get this successful early BOOT/PPP project off the ground.
http://businessoutlook.com.au/exfiles/d ... k_Book.pdf
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Tue Feb 20, 2024 02:11, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

sydneynick wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 23:03 ... you can travel on four-lane highway some 2000 km from west of Ballarat in Victoria to just south of Gympie in Queensland, apart from that short stretch near Hexham. Almost all of this distance is motorway, the main exception being around 15 km through Coffs Harbour which is S4 with 60 or 50 km/h limit.
The current road through Coffs Harbour is D2AP (though you might describe about 300 metres of it as S4 with a wide cross-hatched median), with about 12 at-grade intersections and one overpassed-roundabout interchange. The recent Pacific Hwy celebrations concerned continuous dual-carriageway status, which was effectively achieved despite Coffs Harbour and Hexham.

Under-construction bypass web info here -
https://v2.communityanalytics.com.au/rms/coffs
https://www.pacifichighway.nsw.gov.au/c ... bourbypass

and simulation video here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNLV_5Z-Uoc

The three tunnels are actually fairly short - up to a few hundred metres. Earlier, for safety and cost reasons, there were plans that they might simply be either cuttings or land-bridges, but fortunately environmental, landscape and amenity considerations won out. The tunnels are required because of small patches of high ground on the alignment. There are already similar short tunnels on the Pacific Motorway near Cudgen and St Helena, as well as a cut-&-cover under Coolangatta airport runway.

St Helena time-lapse construction video and a drive-through -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP5LJF5WiuQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHezUZNSaZE

edit: simulation video link updated.
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Sun Jun 02, 2024 13:35, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

I'm prompted to post this by discussions on the general pages about the acceptability of D5 carriageway width in the UK. I don't think I can get away with much more digression in that thread, so posting here.

Jackal provided an interesting list of M1 AADTs, referenced with their cross-sections. Especially interesting was mention of 100K AADT as an approximate trigger for converting D3HS to D4ALR. So I found an official source of traffic stats for Victoria (I don't know how I hadn't come across it before) to make my table below.

Whilst compiling it, I realised that it's not as useful as I'd hoped, because the figures are for the pandemic year! Melbourne's multiple lockdowns during 2020/2021 totalled well over 200 days (btw, a world record, except perhaps China. Fortunately, it contributed to our almost-world-record low death rate.). This iconic photo shows what lockdown did to our traffic in April 2020. The M3 Eastern Freeway had never looked like this -

M3 empty covid.jpg

Here are the 2020 figures anyway. I'll aim to revise them after a normal-ish 2022.

road/location/lanes [2023 lanes] format/2020 AADTx1000 [2023 AADTx1000]

M1 W_of_M80 [D5] HS 176 [176]
M1 Westgate_Bridge D5 ALR 175 [175]
M1 Tunnels D3 ALR toll 120 [119]
M1 inner_east D4 ALR toll 140 [140]
M1 W_of_M3 [D5] HS 170 [169]
M1 E_of_M3 D5 HS 165 [142]
M1 E_of_M420 D3 HS 96 [96]
M1 E_of_Warragul D2 HS 30 [32]

M2 N_of_M1 D4 ALR toll 103 [100]
M2 N_of_Brunswick_rd. D5/6 ALR toll 162 [155]
M2 E_of_M79 D5/6 ALR+ 168 [168]
M2 near_airport D3 HS 98 [96]

M3 E_of_city D5 HS 123 [123]
M3 W_of_Middleborough_rd. D4 HS 146 [146]
M3 Tunnels D3 ALR toll 88 [88]
M3 N_of_M1 D3 HS toll 111 [111]
M3 S_of_M1 D3 HS toll 104 [104]

M80 N_of_M1 D3 HS 140 [139]
M80 Whitten_Bridge D5 ALR 128 [128]
M80 E_of_M2 D4 HS+ 156 [156]
M80 E_of_M31 D4 HS 122 [122]

M8 W_of_M80 D2 HS 70 [65]

M11 S_of_M3 D2 HS 62 [62]

M31 N_of_M80 D2 HS 90 [80]
M31 S_of_Seymour D2 HS 24 [24]

(+ indicates >2 carriageways)

Edit 17-02-2024: revised to include 2023 figures (and some carriageway widenings). Surprisingly, AADTs are the same as, or lower than, 2020!
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Fri Apr 26, 2024 15:47, edited 6 times in total.
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jackal
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by jackal »

Thanks for this. It seems the relationship between AADT and road standard is not too different in Victoria from the UK, at least if you pump those up a bit to account for the quiet year.

These are all cases in Great Britain where three lane motorways were over 130,000 AADT in 2019:

Road Junctions Standard HGVs All motor vehicles
M60 2 1 D3M 8634 153636
M25 15 15 D3M* 11077 146054
M4 6 5 D3M* 9914 140070
M60 25 24 D3M 7433 136088
M60 1 27 D3 7452 135796
M6 24 25 D3M* 14265 134966
M4 4 3 D3M* 7268 134750
M27 11 12 D3M 6370 130554

The M4 and M6 sections are being upgraded, and the M25 section is scheduled for the same. That just leaves the southern quadrant of the M60, which is obviously tricky to ALR given the narrow/intermittent HS (esp. J27-J1), and the M27. The latter has an unusually low HGV count, another important factor to consider, though I feel they should have included it in the current M27 upgrade anyway.

In any case, I stand by the idea that a section of D3M with full HS is likely on the radar for ALR from about 100k AADT, and would add that it's an aberration if it's not at least scheduled for improvement at 130k AADT.

More AADT data here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42359&p=1210562#p1210562
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Bryn666 »

jackal wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 15:17 Thanks for this. It seems the relationship between AADT and road standard is not too different in Victoria from the UK, at least if you pump those up a bit to account for the quiet year.

These are all cases in Great Britain where three lane motorways were over 130,000 AADT in 2019:

Road Junctions Standard HGVs All motor vehicles
M60 2 1 D3M 8634 153636
M25 15 15 D3M* 11077 146054
M4 6 5 D3M* 9914 140070
M60 25 24 D3M 7433 136088
M60 1 27 D3 7452 135796
M6 24 25 D3M* 14265 134966
M4 4 3 D3M* 7268 134750
M27 11 12 D3M 6370 130554

The M4 and M6 sections are being upgraded, and the M25 section is scheduled for the same. That just leaves the southern quadrant of the M60, which is obviously tricky to ALR given the narrow/intermittent HS (esp. J27-J1), and the M27. The latter has an unusually low HGV count, another important factor to consider, though I feel they should have included it in the current M27 upgrade anyway.

In any case, I stand by the idea that a section of D3M with full HS is likely on the radar for ALR from about 100k AADT, and would add that it's an aberration if it's not at least scheduled for improvement at 130k AADT.

More AADT data here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42359&p=1210562#p1210562
153k on the M60 between J2-1! The complexity here is dealing with J2, which is presently a lane gain (not because traffic warrants it but to try and manage the horrendous weaving between 2/3/4). That is not an easy fix for sure... at least the cross-section is ideal for ALR but that's it. From J1 round to J24 is a mish mash and probably impossible to ALR without screwing forward sightlines with the vertical levels issues between carriageways.

What should have been done was an M605 following the now A555 corridor and former A6(M). That will never happen though, if the A555 is extended it'll be an at-grade misery.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by jackal »

I've made a new thread here to discuss the M60 stuff:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42987&p=1210686#p1210686
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

I've edited my original AADT table by adding a column with predictions for 2022. My estimates are based on 2020 covid figures being approx 15% down on otherwise expected, and they assume the covid effect will be absent next year. They ignore the possibility (ruminated on in AU, as in the UK) that (a) a shift to partial work-at-home, and (b) uptake of active travel, will become permanent. I'm confident that my estimates are conservative, as I saw frequent references to AADT's >200K over the last couple of years.

The official AU stats separately show flows for commercial/heavy vehicles, even though included in the totals, as do UK's. My table doesn't show them, but typically they make up 5%-10% of the totals, as in the UK.

The points are mainly selected as my own estimate of the highest-flow locations - I don't think I've missed any. They're nearly all within Melbourne's boundary. VicRoads does share its full databases, for much greater granularity (ie. Jn-J(n+1) on all freeways), but I can't be bothered with the extraction work.

I agree with your assertion of ~100K (perhaps a bit more) as a de-facto D4 trigger. Many of our roads, and yours, are pushing their luck! I think Melbourne (and other AU cities of course) gets away with higher densities for the following reasons -

1. Our busy motorways are mainly urban, while yours are inter-city or orbital routes. This doesn't mean ours belong in the Coventry Ring Road or Leeds' A64(M) small-scale category (both are favourite roads of mine), but it does mean that the heavy stretches often don't last too long. It's easy to tolerate slow traffic for just a few km when you know you'll soon be through it, but not so easy when it's several miles and you're halfway up a drive from Croydon to Manchester.

2. Possibly our laissez-faire lane usage helps (?).

3. Many of the listed roads are speed limited to 80km/hr, most others to 100km/hr. This low (for a motorway) speed increases the threshold density for flow breakdown. Of course you do use VSL to the same end.

4. Most of these roads have ramp metering, and some have M2M connector metering (I know general Sabre opinion is that it doesn't work ... !).

5. The UK seems resistant to embracing ramp braiding. We are increasingly using it to solve our congestion problems (my Victoria Motorways map on the first page of this thread shows where some significant instances are). It is more expensive, but much better, than simple CDing.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

Mordialloc Freeway in Melbourne opened yesterday. This is a 9km northerly extension of the existing Mornington Peninsula Freeway, which runs southwards from Melbourne city in Australia.

I previously posted about it in another thread : viewtopic.php?f=7&t=41867&p=1170833#p1170833.

Driving video on opening day - both ways, in one minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYOz3NgC-bc.

Here is the announcement, with links to project page, etc. - https://roadprojects.vic.gov.au/news/mo ... eeway-open#.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by jackal »

I have previously mentioned the extraordinarily low number of four way, full access freeflow interchanges in Australia. There are only two longstanding ones, the famous Lighthorse Stack at M4/M7 west of Sydney and an offside stack, the location of which is eluding me right now. By comparison, Spain has over a hundred, Germany several hundred, and even the UK, which has a much lower general level of motorway provision than these countries (including Australia), manages 13.

In part this will be due to the low population density in Australia, though that only goes so far, given the significant motorway networks around major cities, and the fact that a large majority of the population lives in these areas. One looks at Melbourne's motorway network, for instance, and marvels that two motorways never cross over in such a way that connections in all directions are warranted. It seems almost deliberate.

Anyway, this quirk is gradually being eroded, with the latest additions being cloverstacks outside Brisbane and Perth:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.645 ... 429746,16z
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.863 ... 210302,16z

The Perth example is in the 'partially unrolled cloverleaf' configuration.
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

^ I've always been amazed by this curious fact too. I don't think it's deliberate avoidance. Rather it's just the way it has worked out.

This tangled mess in Brisbane perhaps counts - the M3 Inner City Bypass (ICB) crosses the M7, which simultaneously splits into the M7 airport tunnel and A3 surface. Here (but better viewed on GE) -
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.444 ... 658,16.11z

Also in Brisbane: follow the Logan Motorway eastwards to its merge with M1. That will become a 4-way when the Coomera Connector Motorway continues the M6 (or M2?) southwards to the Gold Coast. The D3 CCM will run parallel to the M1, which is already bursting its D4 and D5.

A place where Melbourne could have used a 4-way is M1/M3. Now there's insufficient space. There would be M3 northbound to M1 eastbound traffic demand and the reverse if provision was there. Currently there are adequate non-freeway alternatives, and a freeway-based alternative route will eventually arise from planned upgrades SE of there.

Melbourne tentatively plans for three interchanges on its Outer Ring to be stacks, but that project is far in the future. A 4-way is planned at M3/Dandenong-Bypass, when the latter receives its upgrade to motorway. Perhaps a cloverstack. Timing: probably far off.

I'm trying to think of the other extant one you mention. What's an 'offside stack'?
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Re: Australian Motorways

Post by Peter Freeman »

jackal wrote: Sun Apr 17, 2022 11:05 Anyway, this quirk is gradually being eroded, with the latest additions being cloverstacks outside Brisbane and Perth:
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-27.645 ... 429746,16z
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-31.863 ... 210302,16z
Jackal, did you notice, on the Brisbane cloverstack -
(a) The merging signals on a connector and a mainline? It solves the problem of only 400m spacing between an entry and exit, southbound.
(b) The RHS exit in the stack, southbound?

BTW, this interchange has been an almost complete cloverleaf (one movement was signalised) since 2003. You're right though that it has only recently become full freeflow. Or it's still not, if you don't like the signalised merge. And several others are not full freeflow, if you don't like connector-metering!

EDIT: corrected 'metering' to merging'
Last edited by Peter Freeman on Mon Apr 15, 2024 08:23, edited 4 times in total.
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