Macquarie Street a major one way street passing through the outskirts of the

Hobart central business district The Hobart City Centre (referred to as the Hobart CBD) is a suburb surrounded by metropolitan Hobart, which comprises the original settlement, the central business district, and other built-up areas. It is the oldest part of Hobart and include ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, Australia. Macquarie street is named after

Lachlan Macquarie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Gove ...

, who oversaw the planning of Hobart’s inner city grid layout. The street forms a

one-way couplet A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descriptio ...

with nearby Davey Street connecting traffic from the Southern Outlet in the south with traffic from the

Tasman Highway The Tasman Highway (or A3) is a highway in Tasmania, Australia. Like the Midland Highway (Tasmania), Midland Highway, it connects the major cities of Hobart and Launceston, Tasmania, Launceston – however it takes a different route, via the no ...

to the east and the

Brooker Highway The Brooker Highway is a highway in the Australian state of Tasmania. As one of Hobart's three major radials, the highway connects traffic from the Hobart central business district, city centre with the northern suburbs and is the major road con ...

to the north of the city. With

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic (AADT) is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a year divided ...

of 28,500, the road is one of the busier streets in Hobart. From the South Hobart intersection with Cascade Road, Washington Street and Darcy Street, Macquarie Street runs approximately east from South Hobart as a

two-way street A two-way street is a street that allows vehicles to travel in both directions. On most two-way streets, especially main streets, a line is painted down the middle of the road to remind drivers to stay on their side of the road. Sometimes one por ...

until it reaches the intersection with the southern outlet where it becomes a one-way street for the duration of its length. It is primarily four lanes with the exception of its two-way section which is one lane both ways. The intersections on the one-way portion of the street are regulated by synchronised traffic lights. Macquarie Street borders the city garden Franklin Square. Prominent buildings in the street include the Hotel Grand Chancellor, the Lands Building, which houses the Department of Primary Industries, Water & Environment, the '' Mercury'' building,

St Davids Cathedral St Davids Cathedral () is a Church in Wales cathedral situated in St Davids, Britain's smallest city, in the county of Pembrokeshire, near the most westerly point of Wales. Early history Monastery of Saint David, Wales, A monastic community was ...

and the Reserve Bank Building. Macquarie Street is featured as a property in the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

version of

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

. On 15 August 1977 it was converted to a one way street with a

contraflow lane In transport engineering nomenclature, a counterflow lane or contraflow lane is a lane in which traffic flows in the opposite direction of the surrounding lanes. Contraflow lanes are often used for bicycles or bus rapid transit on what are ot ...

for bus services introduced between

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

and Murray streets.

Proposed bypass

The current

system between Macquarie Street and Davey Street was first proposed with the publication of the Hobart Area Transportation Study in 1965. At the time the couplet system was intended to be a stop gap measure before the then proposed Northside Freeway could be completed. However the proposed freeway was seen as controversial and abandoned. Since the completion of the couplet in 1987, there has been no alternative route between the Southern outlet and the other major arterial roads in Hobart. There has since been several design proposals for a tunnel under the city ranging from

cut and cover A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

proposals under Davey/Macquarie Streets to large scale bored tunnels running from the Southern Outlet through to the

Tasman Bridge The Tasman Bridge is a prestressed concrete girder bridge connecting the Tasman Highway over the River Derwent (Tasmania), River Derwent in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. When it opened on 29 March 1965, the Tasman was the longest prestressed con ...

References

External links

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