A23 is an urban arterial route through Canberra. It was once the main route through the city, but now superseded by the Majura Parkway / Monaro Highway (M23) corridor.
The route consists of several roads that featured on the original city design by Walter Burley Griffin, who won a design contest during the early 20th century to design Australia's national capital.
Between Ginns Gap and Fyshwick, A23 is made up entirely of dual carriageway road between 4 and 6 lanes wide, and passes through residential and commercial zones, as well as the Parliamentary Triangle, which includes Lake Burley Griffin, Parliament House and several government institutions.
The route from Fyshwick to Gilmore is divided motorway and arterial road standard, with at least 2 lanes in each direction, then from Gilmore to Williamsdale, the route is undivided rural highway standard with occasional overtaking lanes.
Traffic types vary considerably along the route. Because of the proximity to the industrial areas of Fyshwick, Hume and to a lesser extent, Symonston, there is quite a lot of heavy vehicles using the route. Other traffic includes commuters travelling to and from Civic and South Canberra to Tuggeranong and during Winter, ski traffic making its way to and from the NSW snowfields, south of Cooma.
Between the spans on the southern side of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge over Lake Burley Griffin, there's two granite stones from the 1817 Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames in London. These were presented to Australia after the 1817 Waterloo Bridge was demolished in the 1940s and replaced by a modern structure. A plaque reads, in part, "Stones such as these from the bridge were presented to Australia and other parts of the British world to further historic links in the British Commonwealth of Nations".
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