Long-awaited upgrades to improve safety at a south-west school crossing and accident-prone intersection are going ahead.
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Roads Minister Luke Donnellan visited Terang and Southern Cross yesterday to announce two flashing 40km/h signs for Terang College’s Princes Highway crossing and flashing warning signs for the Penshurst-Warrnambool Road and Mailors Flat-Koroit Road intersection.
Mr Donnellan also visited Portland to launch the Green Triangle Freight Action Plan Update, which makes the case for road upgrades leading to the Port of Portland.
Further funding announcements are expected from the minister in the region on Thursday.
Terang has been campaigning for an upgrade to its junior school crossing for about six years and the school is celebrating the $30,000 funding win.
Terang College principal Greg Button said morning sun glare and the location of the crossing near a rise made flashing lights vital for children’s safety.
“This is a good announcement for the school and the community. The process of this crossing has been a bone of contention for quite a period of time,” he said.
“Traffic on the highway itself is actually increasing… and a lot more heavy transport.”
Mr Donnellan said after first visiting the site when in opposition two years ago, it was pleasing to bring the project to fruition.
“We have been able to deliver this through a separate fund (the Building Our Regions fund) set up to be able to deal with projects which might not meet the criteria of having 10,000 vehicles to have a new flashing speed sign,” he said.
“In some of these projects we don’t have the volumes, but we have the dangers.”
Mr Donnellan said on average 6500 vehicles passed through the crossing every day, 13 per cent of them large trucks.
VicRoads south-west regional director Mark Koliba said the installation would result in fewer cars speeding through the crossing.
“We’ll get much better traffic compliance to the reduced speed limit due to the flashing lights,” he said.
Improvement works will also include installing concrete kerb outstands on the Princes Highway near Simpson Street, aimed at providing pedestrians with a better view of approaching traffic.
Speaking on upgrades to the Southern Cross intersection, Mr Donnellan said a solar-powered sign would be installed 200 metres from the intersection to warn drivers on the Penshurst-Warrnambool Road that they were approaching an intersection.
In the past three years there have been three crashes at the site, two resulting in serious injuries.
“It’s very difficult to see that intersection full stop when you’re travelling on the Penshurst-Warrnambool Road,” he said.
“It’s a basic safety issue first and foremost, it’s coming out of the Building Our Regions fund which has very much a focus on safety, small intersection upgrades and just providing a better environment, a safer environment for the communities.”
The new flashing sign is expected to be installed and operating on Friday.
Member for Western Victoria James Purcell welcomed the Southern Cross announcement and said it was an issue he had been lobbying on for some time.
“We will continue to lobby on behalf of south-west drivers to have the rest of these roads fixed, and for more widespread improvements across the whole road network in our region."
Other roads Mr Purcell has identified as needing immediate work are:
- Port Fairy-Warrnambool Road;
- A1 - Heywood to South Australian border Road;
- Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road;
- Hopkins Highway – Ellerslie-Purnim;
- Hopkins Hwy – Ellerslie-Mortlake Road;
- Myamyn-Macarthur Road;
- Foxhow Road;
- Major transport routes to and from Portland;
- Cobden-Warrnambool Road.