As the world turns to electric buses, we’re going to lumber on with 19th century technology and years of unnecessary disruption pushing the tram on to Commonwealth Avenue come hell or high water. It’s “Seven Days” with IAN MEIKLE. 

TENTERHOOKS no more. The NCA has surprised absolutely no one with its compliant approval for the ACT government’s batshit-crazy tram plan to blow up two bridges and burden the Commonwealth Avenue entrance to Civic with traffic lights on an “at-grade” intersection with an elevated London Circuit.

“Is there anyone within the NCA’s world who thinks it is a good idea to insert another set of traffic lights on Commonwealth Avenue to allow the tram to enter every couple of minutes?” columnist Paul Costigan mused in January. 

“There will be years of disruption by the ACT government’s Disruption Taskforce – a body that must exist within Chris Steel’s portfolio of things. Who else would implement such stupid decisions to mess up traffic flows around Civic?”

By February his tone had hardened: “This proposal continues the government’s now normal practice. It manipulates facts, provides very little evidence, uses meaningless urban speak, boasts about any greenwash and sidelines heritage matters. 

“It knows that the NCA has become a compromised and compliant body when it comes to such irrational developments. There’s also a thesis to be written about the ACT government’s use of user-friendly consultants.”

Around 60,000 cubic metres of fill will be trucked into London Circuit to form an “at-grade” intersection with Commonwealth Avenue. Two of the existing cloverleaf ramps will be removed with work to get underway later this year and its most disruptive construction period likely in 2023 with the removal of the Commonwealth Avenue overpasses over London Circuit.

And that’s all before years of more disruption as the tram construction heads south over Commonwealth Bridge, while the world turns to electric buses. 

CHIEF Minister Andrew Barr was all boo-hoo about the Commonwealth Budget saying the feds had “ignored Canberra again”.

He said Commonwealth infrastructure spending in the ACT was the lowest of any state or territory. 

“It is clear that we need a change in federal government for the ACT to get a fair deal,” he sniffed.

I think it’s clearer still that with Labor holding four out of the ACT’s five federal representatives and no prospect of any of them losing, the Coalition wouldn’t be wasting money on us. It’s Liberal Zed Seselja who should be complaining. 

SO there’s “CityNews” arts editor Helen Musa at the opening night of “Phantom of the Opera” on Sydney Harbour, a production she wrote as being “no ordinary theatre experience” and “a night to remember”.

She was queuing up for her seat and found herself standing next to a familiar-looking, middle-aged gentleman “I vaguely knew” and putting on her best ”I know you, don’t I?” kind of wry smile. Then it dawned on her. It was Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote the show’s music, in town for the theatrical fireworks.

A DROLL snout wrote to say: “Last week, I saw an ACT government ad online begging me to not let leaves go down my stormwater drains. Okay. On Saturday, I saw the ACT government leave literally hundreds of kilos of freshly mown grass along the Ginninderra Drive median strip, most of it heading down the stormwater drains.”

THIS photo from October, 1971, shows Bishop John Morgan turning the first sod at the Southern Cross Woden site as club president Fred Quinane looks on. The club turns 50 in August and is on the hunt for members’ memories and stories to mark its golden anniversary.

Some of the stories will be shared in a commemorative book, which will also highlight popular recipes of some of the club’s most loved dishes (schnitty needs a recipe?).

CEO Ian Mackay says celebrations will begin in July culminating with a black-tie gala event, “One Golden Night”, on Saturday, August 20, that’ll set you back $700 a double.

Meantime, anyone with photographs or anecdotes to share should send them to marketing@cscc.com.au. Anything they use will be rewarded with a $100 club dining voucher

LOVED this personalised number plate on a cute VW I was following on Ginninderra Drive : “HRH”. She was driving it, too. 

Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews” and can be heard on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” news and interview program, 2CC, 9am-noon. There are more of his columns on citynews.com.au