Road Photos & Information: Australian Capital Territory
Entering the ACT from Queanbeyan on Canberra Av. Image © Paul Rands

You've arrived at the road photos and information section that covers the Australian Capital Territory.

One of only 2 territories in Australia, the ACT was established as the FCT (Federal Capital Territory) in 1911. In 1912, Chicago based architect and planner, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion won the design competition to plan the city. His design was used in part, along with adaptations by local authorities, then later additional planning was performed by the NCDC (National Capital Development Committee) from 1958-1989. The NCDC was abolished with the introduction of self-government to the Australian Capital Territory in 1989 and the establishment of the National Capital Planning Authority (now the National Capital Authority). 1

The ACT covers an area of 2 358 square kilometres on the eastern part of Australia within the boundaries of NSW and has more than 178 intersections controlled by traffic lights. Additionally, there are over 23 signalised pedestrian crossings. There are over 1000 bridges in the ACT, ranging from pedestrian foot bridges to multi-lane long span bridges and there are currently over 67 000 streetlights along the streets, community paths, and in public places in the ACT. 2

Below are the various roads that this site has photos of. The numbered routes are sorted by their route number and unnumbered routes alphabetically. To view each gallery, click on the thumbnail or route number. The ACT has a very limited number of roads with route numbers, with most major arterial routes unnumbered.

For photos of general Canberra construction around Civic and the Parlimentary triangle, including many roads and Lake Burley Griffin, click here.

M23 Unnumbered Decommissioned
Alphanumeric Routes National Highways National Routes Unnumbered Major Thoroughfares Decommissioned Routes
Alphanumeric routes are the newest form of route numbering in the ACT. Roads are numbered with M, A and B prefixes indicating the importance / standard of the route. The green and gold route markers indicate routes which are part of the National Highway System. They indicate the most direct routes between major cities. The black on white markers indicate highways around Australia which are not part of the National Highway System but are still of some national significance. Routes that are significant but haven't been given a route number. Routes that were once numbered, but are now not, perhaps due to alignment changes or the importance of a route has diminished.

1 ACT Government and National Capital Authority
2 Geoscience Australia and Roads ACT

Last updated: 16-Feb-2019 19:34

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