South Arm Highway Upgrade

The Tasmanian Department of State Growth is planning to upgrade Rokeby & South Arm Roads between Glebe Hill and Lauderdale.

What’s the plan?

To increase Rokeby & South Arm Roads from two lanes to four. The section included in the upgrade starts at Pass Road in Glebe Hill, passes through Rokeby, Clarendon Vale & Oakdowns and ends at Acton Road in Lauderdale. The intersection of South Arm & Acton Roads will also be upgraded.

It’s an early concept rather than an actual design.

A map showing the proposed upgrade to Rokeby & South Arm Roads. — The concept for the proposed upgrade to Rokeby & South Arm Roads.

Most of the road will continue in the same corridor it is now. The section between Hawthorne Place (near Bayview Secondary College) & Horsham Road will be diverted to the south of the commercial area.

Note that maps show this part of the road as Rokeby Road then South Arm Road. The project calls it the South Arm Highway.

Why the upgrade?

The project states the reason for the changes is ‘to improve traffic congestion, travel time reliability and road safety for eastern shore communities accessing Hobart’s CBD‘.

Our thoughts

The good

The plan mentions bike paths and safer walking paths & crossings.
A safer intersection at South Arm & Acton Roads will be good (as long as it safely incorporates pedestrian & bike paths).
The bypassed section of road through Oakdowns will allow the are to be developed into a local village centre — wide footpaths, bike lanes, street trees, easy on-street parking and reduced vehicle speeds. A perfect complement to the mix of shops, food outlets and light industrial retailers already there.

The less good

Building bigger roads doesn’t improve congestion. More lanes here encourages more people to drive and results in more cars at Mornington Roundabout, crossing the Tasman Bridge and in the CBD. This project can’t improve congestion or travel time reliability — two of the stated goals.
The only mention of public transport is ‘better bus stops’. Such a significant change to a major transit corridor should do more for public transport. This is the perfect opportunity to build a dedicated busway. That would allow the bus rapid transit network currently being conceptualised to reach Glebe Hill to extend to Oakdowns if not Lauderdale. People in Lauderdale, Oakdowns, Clarendon Vale & Rokeby could then get fast, frequent, modern buses to Glebe Hill shopping centre or on into the city — just like the Brisbane Metro. This would improve congestion.
Active transport should be a higher priority. Walking & riding seem to be more of a footnote than a core part of the project — as we’ve seen before. This is shown by the Oakdowns to Acton Road section not being scheduled for upgrade until traffic flows suggest it’s necessary. Meanwhile the existing road is dangerous for pedestrians & cyclists to the point it’s mostly avoided — see the photo below.
Turning these roads into a high speed dual carriageway will effectively divide this area in half. There will need to be carefully designed pedestrian & bike infrastructure to help mitigate this.