Southern Expressway - Signage Criticisms

Signage Criticisms

As a two-direction expressway, signage is required on the same carriageway for both directions, so some signs are double sided to allow this. In Stage 1 of the expressway when signs were installed, some of them were made electronic, despite the fact that when the expressway is operating in the opposite direction, these signs would not even be seen (ie, heading north, a sign prior to the Marion Road exit has South Road and Marion Road printed on the sign, however, underneath these, arrows are illuminated specifying which lane to exit. Another electronic sign that may not have been necessary is again, northbound, halfway down the long descent, a sign informs, entirely digitally, that the Marion Road exit is in 1km. When the expressway is open southbound however, this sign says "WRONG WAY, GO BACK", despite the last entrance before this sign in the wrong direction is over 10 kilometres away. In early 2011, the Department of Transport also added variable speed signs to the descent of the hill to notify users when bad conditions were ahead, by making the limit vary from 80kph down to 60kph or 40kph. These signs, however, were installed after the decision to duplicate the expressway, so these were taken down just several months later to make room for construction works.