Demolition work is underway on three houses bordering a key road into Hobart to make way for a fifth lane to ease traffic congestion. The community fought to save the properties but the state government persisted with the compulsory acquisitions for the project.
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00:00 This was one of three houses being knocked down in the Hobart suburb of Dunearn.
00:08 They were acquired by the Department of State Growth and earmarked for demolition in an
00:12 attempt to reduce traffic congestion coming into the CBD, especially from Kingborough
00:17 and the Hewan Valley.
00:19 Two years ago the community feared many more houses would be pulled down.
00:23 We're all pretty exhausted and frankly pretty discouraged.
00:27 It's been a long time, there's been a whole lot of work we've put in to very little success.
00:33 Four properties have had land partially acquired in Dunearn Road and Macquarie and Davie Streets.
00:39 A southern outlet fifth lane is being constructed between Alinda Grove and Macquarie Street
00:44 for northbound traffic, aiming to make bus travel more attractive and reduce the peak
00:49 hour bottleneck.
00:50 The new lane will be what's known as a T3 transit lane.
00:53 It'll be used for buses, taxis, motorcycles, emergency service vehicles and private vehicles
00:59 carrying three or more passengers.
01:02 The lane will connect onto a new peak hour clearway on Macquarie Street.
01:06 We've waited so long for significant public transport infrastructure, like decades, so
01:11 finally something on the way.
01:14 Town planner Stephen Burgess was a consultant on the project in its early stages.
01:19 He says a lot more work needs to be done in reorganising Hobart's road network to run
01:24 efficiently.
01:25 We will need a bus lane in Macquarie Street and probably Davie Street as well and then
01:29 eventually we'll need another transit lane like we're getting now.
01:32 We're going to need two of those on the brooker, one of those on the bridge.
01:36 The Department of State Growth says more work will be done on the roadside rock face to
01:40 reduce the risk of rockfall before construction of the transit lane starts.
01:44 That work is expected to start in April and take about a year.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]