“There is also the fact that children, living on the west side of town have to cross the bypass at the T-junction with Millicent Road to enable them to get to school.
“I do not believe that it is safe for the children to be crossing with vehicles travelling at 100kph.”
Cr Burrow’s four-part motion also sought council support to write to the State Government and close the existing public and staff access points and locating them alongside the proposed pedestrian access point on the only straight section of the bypass.
“I believe there are some alteraction that could be made at this late stage of the development, which will improve the safety and the amentities of the area,” he said.
“I believe it is possible to reduce the number of access and egress points from the reserve from three to one.
“This would involve dispensing with the current public access and the staff access and combining them together with the proposed pedestrian access.”
Alongside Cr Burrow’s recommendations, elected members discussed the proposed realignment of the cycling and walking trail to Greenrise Reserve as a result of changes to the Penola Bypass’ southern intersection.
A staff report says the works at the southern end of the bypass will result in priority to vehicles travelling along the bypass road and development of turning lanes onto Church Street.
“These works result in changes to the walking cycling path to Greenrise Reserve as the intersection changes making it unsafe for users of the path to cross the road due to reduced site distances,” the report says.
“The solution as provided by the design engineers, is the provision of a safe crossing point further west which offers a safer location for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the bypass.”
A new path will be three metres wide and constructed to sealed standard with signage and line-marking, as well as gates to be installed as part of the project.
“The provision of double gates will be included as part of accessing the southern part of the common age reserve to ensure sheep hazing in this area do not escape onto the roads,” the report says,
“All gates – excluding the gate adjacent to Church Street – will also be spring loaded to limit any gates being left open.”
All costs for the project are part of the redevelopment of the northern stage of the Penola Bypass.
