The Pacific HWY/MWY

[DJM83]

Irecently got back from QLD i drove all the way from Albury (NSW/VIC) border and the road from home to sydney isnt to bad but beyond that it is ИИИИhouse admitadly they are duplicating it in some parts but it is crap most of it 2way the trucks that travel this road speed and tailgate which doesnt help much but for a national highway it is of very poor quality we got held up in balina because of a serious crash just 3 mins south of the town then after passing through there was another crash only minor but a crash all the same when will the NSW?QLD governments put more money into these 'national' roads and use some of our so called 'road' taxes to speed up the duplication works or fix the 'black spots'.
Any thoughts ideas from ppl that regularly travel these roads? but other then that the QLD roads are pretty good compard to NSW

[EFDream]

Mate well all wonder wahtthey do with our road taxes and tolls etc. Its a load of crap the state of the roads up north. And you'd think they could do something with the revenue they make by having speed cameras every 5 k. I fly now. Not going to let the bastards have any more of my money!

[NAK302]

our "fix" is to try and stay clear of hwy 1. when heading south we prefer the New England or even better the Newell highways. these depend on our final destination.
head west and find Warwick which gets you onto the New England or sends you out to Goondiwindi to go the Newell. it's a bit dearer for fuel out west but average speeds are way higher and less traffic means less chance of accidents. a disadvantage is the very boring landscape.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by GT-0733

our "fix" is to try and stay clear of hwy 1. when heading south we prefer the New England or even better the Newell highways. these depend on our final destination.
head west and find Warwick which gets you onto the New England or sends you out to Goondiwindi to go the Newell. it's a bit dearer for fuel out west but average speeds are way higher and less traffic means less chance of accidents. a disadvantage is the very boring landscape.

not to mention the cost of replacing headlights, shredded tyres and windscreens is a lot less likely on the Newell. The Pacific is a bad (and deadly) joke.

[MrSparkle]

Agreed with all above. The new(ish) bypasses are great but it needs to be like that the whole way to QLD. The stretch as mentioned above, between Grafton and Ballina, is woeful - dangerous stretches and traffic snarls aplenty. The overtaking lanes are stupidly short and you get the classic recipe for disaster - a caravan holding up 100 cars, and then the crazy rush to overtake in 200m of extra lane, and then the "hold on and pray" section of merging. The road toll on that stretch really is no surprise unfortunately.

These days I will only do the QLD run in the wee hours, preferably overnight. I'd much rather take my chances with animals and the very occasional truck, than with other motorists during the day.

[chief]

I find that if you drive heading south from Sydney, it is a much better drive. The scenery, roads and stops on the side of the road. Head north and it is a bit of a joke. Always prefer driving south.

[RegSpec]

I recently drove down to Bega and have to agree the south coast roads are a great drive. Regular o/taking lanes, sensible speed limits and lovely countryside I saw only 2 coppers in the space of a week. The drive down and back was the highlight of an otherwise disasterous holiday.
At Easter we are going up Nambucca and to be honest Im not really looking forward to it, last time we went up it was like guardrail white line-guardrail white line and boring as buggery, not to mention coppers and cameras etc...its the same going down to Canberra
Such a shame you cant get up north via the south coast road :eclipsee_

[rayner22]

Originally Posted by BlueBAXR8

I recently drove down to Bega and have to agree the south coast roads are a great drive. Regular o/taking lanes, sensible speed limits and lovely countryside I saw only 2 coppers in the space of a week. The drive down and back was the highlight of an otherwise disasterous holiday.
At Easter we are going up Nambucca and to be honest Im not really looking forward to it, last time we went up it was like guardrail white line-guardrail white line and boring as buggery, not to mention coppers and cameras etc...its the same going down to Canberra
Such a shame you cant get up north via the south coast road :eclipsee_

Put it this way mate, if your heading to Nambucca ( I live there lol) get ready for a LOT more speed cameras as you get closer, a lot more unmarkeds and a hell of a lot of dumbshizen p-platers that think the road is their race track - theres a lot up here!!

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by chief

I find that if you drive heading south from Sydney, it is a much better drive. The scenery, roads and stops on the side of the road. Head north and it is a bit of a joke. Always prefer driving south.

Originally Posted by BlueBAXR8

I recently drove down to Bega and have to agree the south coast roads are a great drive. Regular o/taking lanes, sensible speed limits and lovely countryside I saw only 2 coppers in the space of a week. The drive down and back was the highlight of an otherwise disasterous holiday.
At Easter we are going up Nambucca and to be honest Im not really looking forward to it, last time we went up it was like guardrail white line-guardrail white line and boring as buggery, not to mention coppers and cameras etc...its the same going down to Canberra
Such a shame you cant get up north via the south coast road :eclipsee_

I love the south coast, and especially the drive down there. Was always my only choice for a holiday destination.

[Keepleft]

The New England Highway is the National Route and primarily a Commonwealth funding responsibility.

The Pacific Highway is purely a NSW 'state' road. In upgrading efforts to date, both the Commonwealth and NSW goverments have committed funds owing its national importance to the economy. Because the upgrading has proven far more expensive than the 1.2 billion originally estimated, a toll is proposed to finalise the remainder of the length by speeding up the works. Ultimate cost could fall between 5 - 6 billion.

The newly opened dual carriageway lengths AND full freeway lengths are to have point to point speed cameras installed. (See ALP north coast women MP's as key proponents, as reported in hansard). I consider this a basis for NOT continuing the upgrade seeing as these *newly opened* roads are obviously soooo dangerous.

NSW is quite frankly in a dire financial mess, our infrustructure is failing and it is quite clear we don't know how to build 'high-standard' freeway quality roads anymore. How else does one explain the Australian idiot who globally designed the rest area exit lanes to be 50 metres, and for there to be a 'slip' lane at rejoin/departure?? NFI. I undertook action to change that 'global' specification, basically this change affected the whole entire route plans.

Hell, we can't even stick to our own design guidelines, the Buladelah-Cooloolongook section cost $197 million for 22 kilometres of road. Its unpaved median is typically 8.0 metres undivided. Even our poor, third world road design guidelines effectively mandate median barrier when this is 10 metres or less on such speed zones! Little wonder the crossovers, AND another exaple of poor stanadrds, - the people who insist on doing U-Turns at 'emergency access bays' which are NOT used overseas where speeds are higher, here in particular, a reason why the speed limit will not go higher than 110km/h, but may even reduce.

The maximum toll looks set to be $20 - 23, but I'd reckon on $28 - 32 at completion. 'Locals' won't pay.

[ltd]

Numerous governments have squandered funds into the pacific highway into consolidated revenue, as the NSW government is broke. This is because for the last 10 years we have had a state government anal on repaying debt, yet it has not spent money on maintenance, upgrades or basic infrastructure. Any NSW citizen will tell you how ИИИИ poor the roads, trains, schools, hospitals, police, ferries, courts, water etc are and how they have deminished into an absolute farce in the last decade. A search on the ABS reveals that in 1995 NSW collected 17.5bn in revenue and spent 8bn on the public service salaries. The other 9.5bn was spent on infrastructure. In 2004/05 the state collected 41.4bn and spent 39.6bn on the public service salaries, leaving 1.8 bn to fund infrastructure. That is how the pacific highway, a disgustingly over represented death toll road has been constantly moved down the priorities list. It will not change any time soon either, as we still have exorbitant public service bills to pay. Not to mention the redundancy payouts to fire some of these people and then their pensions as well.

The better advice is to travel on the new england highway.

[Fairlane]

It's a disgrace Route 1, the Pacific Highway. I still cant fathom how in the 21st century, an advanced OECD country still has a goat track of a road between its first and third largest city (not to mention Newcastle ,Coffs Habour).

Generally i have found NSW roads to be ****(and ive got the stonechips and cracked windscreen to prove it), council and states seem to avoid all resurfacing projects, they just keep filling the holes, even when the road is completely buggered. They have no excuses if QLD and VIC (shock horror) can have decent roads.

During the Holidays I take the New England, i only use the Pac if it is during a quiet weekday or am using Summerland Way/ Mount Lindesay Highway.

[Martyvan]

RE Pacific Motorway, The Qld Government has plans in place to cover its territory on the matter, in fact the highway isnt too bad pretty much as far as it goes currently... only from just past Nerang to Tugan is it craphouse. (IE only 2 lanes).

The NSW Government wouldnt put any money towards the Tugan bypass for ages... otherwise this would have been part of the original project which included the M1 from Brisbane to Nerang.

Federal Government should put more money towards upgrading it. But there is only so much they can do with their Budget Surplus, like remove the higher tax brackets... (Dont flame me)

Alternatives (As Others have said), which are not quite as scenic as the coast road are New England, which has 'other' benefits (Big Guitar Anyone?), and the Newell, which considering the amount of heavy traffic, is kept in pretty good condition as a whole.

To be honest, the New England actually saves up to an hour of your trip on the way to Sydney from Brisbane or Vice Versa.

Anyway, thats my 2c worth

[FTE217]

Who wants to go to Qld anyway ?

[Martyvan]

Originally Posted by Bluedriver

Who wants to go to Qld anyway ?

Smart People, moving to the "Smart State"

[Des]

The scariest thing is, it's 400% better than it was even 5 years ago....

[EFDream]

Originally Posted by Des

The scariest thing is, it's 400% better than it was even 5 years ago....

So true. *trying to forget that*

We just need to knock out some of those revenue boxes on poles

[YOOT]

Originally Posted by Bluedriver

Who wants to go to Qld anyway ?

Everyone apparently, I wish they'd all bug off and go back south where they came from so our housing prices return to normal! :ymca:

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by YOOT

Everyone apparently, I wish they'd all bug off and go back south where they came from so our housing prices return to normal! :ymca:

lol nah mate you can have the Victorians,they can't afford our house prices !

Seriously as Des mentioned it is a lot better than before, I have been driving from Sydney to Bris or Sunshine coast for 20yrs. It's getting better but we have many more cars and trucks on the road since those yrs.
Inexperienced drivers and impatience is part of the blame not just the road works.
There will still be carnage even when it becomes a dual carriage way due to apathy sadly.

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by 00VenomXR

The trucks that travel this road speed and tailgate

Well you’re obviously an expert on the issue. What do you consider tailgating? If I’m trying to overtake another truck and am held up behind him for a few kilometres is this tailgating or trying to overtake? I would have thought that living in Albury would have given you a better understanding on issues like these.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Well you’re obviously an expert on the issue. What do you consider tailgating? If I’m trying to overtake another truck and am held up behind him for a few kilometres is this tailgating or trying to overtake? I would have thought that living in Albury would have given you a better understanding on issues like these.

Mate no need to get stroppy about it i was making a general observation after all that time in the car stuff like that becomes obvious i assume that u drive trucks? most of them are ok but most drove like they owned the road living in albury has nothing to do with understanding the road rules but trucks driving about 3-4 metres apart and the same distance behind cars (happened to me a few times) and getting passed by trucks while travelling at the posted limit no wonder there is so many crashes dont get me wrong there are a heap of ppl that cant even drive a car let alone a truck but look at how many serious crashes on the highway around my area and others involve trucks, but then again you seem like a know it all so you would know

[rob_liss_lms10]

I travelled from brisbane to Ballina and back last w/end.The roads were ok imo,lots of road works and up-grading going on which I thought was widening for multi lane roads? It's always a pain when it(road works) are being done,but geez we all forget about the inconvienience of constuction once completed and we are all zooming along 15k over limit(not that I condone speeding) on u beaut multi lane h/way and getting booked for speeding.What I found was a pain were the fixed camera's on down hill runs on the passing lane bits of road,not a camera for miles,or passing lane for that matter,then whamoo,both appear at the same time..lol..go figure...but I do realise they are for my saftey and not revenue raising.

[Hunter]

The M1 (Pacific Motorway) between Brisbane and the Gold Coast is probably one of the BEST high speed roads in QLD... seriously. Its almost entirely concrete and the surface is a dream to drive on compared to say the Gateway Motorway...

Most of the roads in QLD are ИИИИ. A lot of them were constructed during Sir Joh's reign of terror. Ipswich Motorway is rumoured to be a product of Russ Hinze and his friends which explains its poor design.

Anyway the QLD Govt. did a good job with the M1 and they're working on the Bruce Hwy but QLD is a biiiiiig state and the federal govt. dickheads are refusing to help fix any major national road in qld...

[EFDream]

Whats with the highway south of Albury being beautiful and the highway was north of Treed Heads being beautiful and everything in between (apart from the f3 and m5) being crap?

Originally Posted by EFDream

Whats with the highway south of Albury being beautiful and the highway was north of Treed Heads being beautiful and everything in between (apart from the f3 and m5) being crap?

Hehe the M5... Well the actual quality condition of the road is ok, but you know its a ИИИИ road when your averages speed sits around 25-30ks. In a 110 zone. Sure 20 years ago 2 lanes *may* have been sufficent. But from Campbelltown you need at least 3 lanes and the airport tunnel needs at least 4 each direction, and make it highway quality (ie shoulders, 100-110k limit)

[GOLDIE]

I see the nsw goverment wants to put a toll on the pacific hwy so they have money to fix it.

Ian

[ltd]

Martyvan, like I said before, NSW government sticks whatever funds it can get into consolidated revenue. Click on the link to see what the federal gov has to offer.
http://www.ministers.dotars.gov.au/j.../l124_2005.htm

With issues like the cross city tunnel and the developer having to donate 104 million to the rta to win the tender is it any wonder that they want to know where the money will be spent first?

[ltd]

The reason why it isn't being done at anything more than a snails pace is because NSW agreed to put in half for the upgrade, yet they have no money to spend.

People, It is a State Road, not federal.

[Martyvan]

Originally Posted by ltd

The reason why it isn't being done at anything more than a snails pace is because NSW agreed to put in half for the upgrade, yet they have no money to spend.

People, It is a State Road, not federal.

I always thought highway one was the federal route?
Thats what the signs say? Green with Yellow/Gold Writing?

[ltd]

Nup, its a state road.