Expert advice for Lights and Pedestrian Crossing at Birkin Road Ignored
Thursday, 02 October 2008 11:07
What does it take to get something done about roads in Bellbowrie?
In recent days I uncovered a document using Freedom of Information Laws, from July 2007 that recommended not only action on the speed limit through Bellbowrie but installation of lights at the intersection of Birkin Road and Moggill Road!
Despite the Chief Safety Engineer stating that action on this intersection was required by December 2007 nothing has happened.
I am particularly annoyed that this sort of report is kept secret for well over a year. Local residents have a right to this information.
Click here to read what the report says about the Birkin Road/Moggill Road intersection.
I found the unearthing of this expert document extraordinary given that a year after its production and only a few days before the recent fatality on Moggill Road I received a letter from Main Roads making it clear they would not provide a pedestrian crossing. (this letter was posted on www.moggill.net only four days before the recent tragedy) Yet the report a year earlier makes it clear that lights were strongly recommended for the intersection. The Main Roads Minister claimed on radio that these lights would include a pedestrian crossing.
Margaret de Wit, myself and local residents have been campaigning for years to get something done about this stretch of road and it is extraordinary that the Government’s expert reports are shrouded in secrecy and we continue to be frustrated by bureaucratic nonsense such as this latest rejection of a pedestrian crossing. Click here to view Main Roads Department letter.
This was sent despite the fact the Department’s experts had already recommended lights on the intersection which would include a pedestrian crossing!
This report shows clearly that not only pedestrians are at risk but there is a growing instance of serious motor accidents in just recent years including 7 serious accidents.
We just want something done here to make this road safe for local motorists and local pedestrians. It is not a hugely expensive process, it has been recommended within the Government. We do not want a political debate about it, we just want something done.