Designing roads that work for

motorists

Major Road Projects Conference

11-12 March 2014, Sydney, Australia

Mark Wolstenholme

Senior Policy Adviser – Traffic and Safer Roads

NRMA Motoring & Services

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Mega motorways

WestConnex - a once in a lifetime opportunity to

make a positive contribution to the way

Sydneysiders move around

Fills critical gaps in Sydney’s motorway network

and enables urban renewal along the Parramatta

Road corridor.

Much more than just a road

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WestConnex must work for people -

and not just for the first few years after opening

It must fulfil its stated objective of

relieving congestion on the M4 and

M5 and the parallel arterial routes.

This must be the overriding

principal, not revenue maximisation

for Government.

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“Relieving congestion on the M4 and M5 and the parallel

arterial routes” – what does this mean in practice?

Offering motorists a certain level of service?

Moving as many people as we can?

Moving as many vehicles as we can?

Set clear objectives for the network and monitor

performance against them?

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Driving the traffic = more revenue

• Anything that is blocking traffic is lost revenue

• Where the revenue risk sits with the concessionaire

they are more motivated to fix it

• But still relatively conservative about what they are

going to do to fix it

• Rigorous conditions around air quality and noise –

what about traffic and safety?

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NRMA’s ‘Decongestion Strategy’:

Manage the motorways

1 million journeys each day on

Sydney’s motorways

Traffic jams can build at the rate

of 1.5km a minute

Unmanaged motorways = 25%

loss of capacity

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel -

use tried and tested ‘off the shelf’

technology as used in Melbourne

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WestConnex Stage 1:

The longest road tunnel in Australia

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A completely new experience for Sydney motorists

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What happens when things go wrong?

The longer the tunnel, the greater

the likelihood of an incident

somewhere in the tunnel

The whole tunnel will close

whenever there is a significant

incident in the tunnel

Need new ways to manage

incidents

Need to minimise the number of

incidents

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New ways to manage incidents

TMC adopted NRMA’s call

for target time for clearing

major traffic incidents

Need to look outside the

traditional motorway lease

area

Strict performance

measures for motorway

operators AND the TMC

No tolls for incident

responders

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What about the surface routes?

Make sure the detour routes have

sufficient capacity

These routes will be used by B-

double petrol tankers, overheight

trucks and whenever there is an

incident in the tunnel

May need to suspend the bus

lanes when there is an incident in

the tunnel

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Reduce confusion and achieve better flow and

safety approaching the tunnel

200m out from the portal, drivers

are fixated on the portal

They are not focused on signs,

other than the speed limit

Need to reduce the forest of signs

e.g. why does NSW require 3 x

fixed signs before each VSLS zone?

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Use 21st Century technology

Source: Picture VMS from roadtraffic-technology.com, by SES (Securite and

Signalisation) Technologies

Must have 21st Century

technology such as

picture / colour VMS

(RMS failed to act on

NRMA’s submissions to

the M2 and M5 widening)

Pull out areas for

overheight vehicles

Avoid right hand on and

off-ramps

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A new appreciation of how motorists behaviour

interacts with the physical engineering

Tunnel portals can positively or negatively

influence drivers feelings and actions

including stress, panic and speed

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Minimising incidents in the tunnel

Safety – e.g. drainage pits, merge lengths, lane

widths, pavement lights, fatigue, monotony

claustrophobia

There is no room for error – a small deviation can

end in catastrophe

Flow breakdown – e.g. merging traffic, speed

cameras, shock waves, wall panels to show gradient

Flow breakdown - not at tunnel low point

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Contemporary traffic and road safety – a new

opportunity for WestConnex

Austroads Guide to Road Tunnels and current RMS

specs do not pick up on these details

Traffic models are unable to pick up on these details

Over reliance on the traffic model is a feature of

many projects

What design capacity is assumed – 2100pv/h/lane?

Operational capacity may actually be much less –

1700 pc/h/lane in tunnels. Even less where lower

speed limits

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So what’s the answer?

No shortage of skilled people who can build tunnels

Taking the traditional approach and replicating

previous tunnel designs and ways of operating will not

work

Needs a much greater understanding and focus on

the detailed traffic and safety issues

Need new creative skills and solutions

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Everything will be OK - it’s a 3 lane tunnel…

Comparison of total crashes by number of lanes on urban freeways

Kononov, Bailey, and Allery, 2008

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Bored tunnels

Tunnels are monotonous for

drivers due to their form (e.g. few

intersections, one way flow)

Fatigue or tiredness in drivers in

tunnels is more prevalent.

Truck drivers can experience

these effects more than drivers of

other vehicles due to the large

distances involved whilst in transit.

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Lærdal Tunnel, Norway – 24.5km

Divided into 4

sections

Three 30m diameter

mountain halls

Keeps drivers alert

and creates the

perception that

drivers are entering

a new tunnel

Source for Laerdal images: Erik Selmer, lighting designer

http://lightzoomlumiere.fr/2013/08/29/effects-of-blue-light-23-erik-

selmer/

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Lærdal Tunnel, Norway

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“While the main tunnel has white lights, the caves have

blue lighting with yellow lights at the fringes to give an

impression of sunrise. The caves are meant to break the

routine, providing a refreshing view”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A6rdal_Tunnel

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We highlight our bridges. Why can’t WestConnex

be interesting for motorists too?

/

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The Stockholm bypass Project – a new 21km

motorway with 18km of tunnels

/

This section creates a

contrast from the

surrounding tunnel

It is called “the lung”

and is part of the

ventilation system

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Other Australian road tunnels

6.7km AirportLink, Brisbane

4.8km Clem7

4.6km Legacy Way

4.4km EastWest Link, Melboune (Stage 1 Ref Design,

between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink)

3.4km CityLink Burnley Tunnel, Melbourne

1.6km CityLink Domain Tunnel

1.6km Eastlink

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A new…

M5 East tidal flow

CCT 4th Lane Anzac Bridge and Ward Avenue ramp at

the eastern end

LCT – 3rd lane on M2

M7 – the Old Windsor Road interchange at Norwest

Boulevard