General News
1 September, 2022
Works to begin at Maryborough’s Napier and Nolan intersection to address safety concerns
“As a council we’re committed to doing what we can to ensure the safety of our community and it’s great that we will see some works carried out by council. “We will continue to advocate to the Victorian Government to see further improvements...
A number of infrastructure changes will be carried out at Maryborough’s notorious Napier and Nolan streets intersection to improve safety and while welcomed, police say a reduced speed limit would be a further improvement.
Intersection sight distance will be improved and signage to address traffic flow in and out of the Metro Petroleum service station will also be addressed, following Central Goldfields Shire Council staff working alongside the Department of Transport and local businesses.
It comes 12 months after the Central Goldfields Shire Council engaged Driscoll Engineering to undertake a review of the intersection in response to community safety concerns.
Among those concerns were the high number of collisions at the intersection as well as near misses in recent years, with one collision in July last year resulting in a cyclist being airlifted to hospital.
The upgrades will see alterations made to the no parking zone at the intersection and formalising car parking with line marking, while signage will be installed to encourage drivers to enter Metro Petroleum from Nolan Street and exit with a left turn only onto Napier Street.
The works are expected to commence in the next month and Central Goldfields Shire councillor Gerard Murphy signposted the potential for future upgrades at the intersection.
“Since being elected I’ve had numerous residents come to me with genuine safety concerns. It is a busy intersection with a mix of vehicle and pedestrian traffic,” he said.
“As a council we’re committed to doing what we can to ensure the safety of our community and it’s great that we will see some works carried out by council.
“We will continue to advocate to the Victorian Government to see further improvements but for now, we are hopeful that these improvements will increase community safety.
“We look forward to seeing these improvements made over the coming months.”
The changes to the intersection have been welcomed by local police, however Central Goldfields Highway Patrol Acting Sergeant Andrew Henderson said driver behaviour was still key to reducing collisions at the intersection.
“From where we sit and what we do, any changes that are going to improve visibility or make the infrastructure of that intersection more user friendly to ensure road safety is a great step forward,” he said.
“However, this doesn’t alleviate from the fact that drivers still need to pay attention, stop and give way at intersections and drive to the conditions.
“Yes, these changes are going to improve sight lines at the intersection, make it more visible and make access to and from the petrol station clearer, but they haven’t been major contributing factors to collisions at that intersection — failure to give way has been.
“As it currently sits, the intersection is quite clear and in my view it’s driver inattention that’s a key issue.”
Act Sgt Henderson said moving forward, he would like to see the speed limit in Napier Street reduced to 50 km/h, in line with other small towns.
“Something I think that could contribute to road safety at that intersection is reducing the speed limit of Napier Street to 50 km/h,” he said.
“The speed limit in all our other built up streets is either 50 km/h or 40 km/h and although Napier Street is part of the Pyrenees Highway and that’s why it is a 60 km/h zone, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be reduced.
“We see it in smaller country towns that highways pass through, speed limits are being reduced and that is something the Department of Transport need to consider along the Pyrenees Highway right through Maryborough.
“In my view, that is something that would definitely contribute to improved driver safety in the area.”
Maryborough’s Metro Petroleum owner JK Khan said there had been discussions around painting directional arrows on the service station driveway and footpath, however it would require Department of Transport Approval and regular maintenance, which would be costly and disrupt the traffic flow.
He said new signage at the service station, which will be installed by the business, was a positive step forward.
“We will be installing signage that says entry only on Nolan Street and on the Napier Street side there will be signage telling drivers to turn left only,” he said.
“I think this is a very good step forward but at the end of the day, it’s up to people driving on the road to make sure they follow those signs.
“I think it’s very important people follow these signs once they’re up because this is a very dangerous intersection. “
While Nolan Street is a council road, Napier Street, which forms part of the Pyrenees Highway, is a Department of Transport road with any future upgrade works dependent on the department.
According to council, an expression of interest for a potential future upgrade of the intersection has been submitted to the department under the Federal Blackspot Program 2023-24, with council staff to continue providing the department support to facilitate future upgrades.