This advice is primarily aimed at people who agist their horses at Kaleen Paddocks or who ride there from places to the east of EPIC using the marked trail that crosses Flemington Road and skirts the Crace Grasslands in Mitchell.
RoadsACT are adding an extra lane to the Gungahlin Drive Expressway near the Mitchell turnoff. Despite quite obvious equestrian trail signs at the intersection of Hoskins Street and Nitra Place (the eastern stub of Bellenden Road) RoadsACT have constructed a fenced machinery compound across the trail. This makes it impossible to access the verge of the GDE from the Crace Grasslands and continue on to the underpass under the Barton Highway. Once this was bought to ACTEA’s attention we contacted RoadsACT to point out that this action, without any notification, was catching out local riders and forcing them to take potentially dangerous detours to complete their route. Once advised, Roads’ response was pretty quick and an on-site meeting, including a local rider of the route, followed. RoadsACT made a number of suggestions about alternative routes but none that could be considered safe or enjoyable. Since the works are expected to be finished by the end of June it was agreed that ACTEA would advise riders that the route was temporarily closed. While not a satisfactory outcome there were a couple of pluses:
- RoadsACT responded quickly to ACTEA’s complaint about the unheralded closure
- There is one more transport engineer who can now recognise an equestrian trail sign and knows where to go to talk to local equestrians.
Agistees at Kaleen Horse Paddocks should contact Ineka Leven for more detail.