Greater Bendigo’s priority one intersections

City of Greater Bendigo engineering and public space manager Brett Martini said the council had a list of priority one intersections that were considered for council and external funding each year.

“We’re finding with a lot of those intersections we need a more proactive approach, not just leaving it up to people to navigate,” he said.

The list includes seven sites across the City of Greater Bendigo, all of which have been on council’s agenda for the past few years.

“With traffic growth or accident history often the priority varies over time but we do keep a watching brief on all of these,” Mr Martini said.

“They are the highest priority ones that we are looking at for council funding or external funding.”

Mr Martini said the council worked closely with VicRoads to identify areas of concern across the city’s vast network of local and state roads.

“If the community has concerns around other intersections we encourage them to raise their concerns with us,” Mr Martini said.

“We do undertake routine inspections but we can have engineers take a look if concerns are raised.”

A number of crashes at this intersection has led the council to develop a concept plan for this site.

Mr Martini said the council was looking at installing a roundabout.

He said Black Spot funding for the intersection had been looked into but the severity of the crashes so far was not enough to warrant funding.

This intersection near St John of God is high on the list due to community concern rather than accident data, Mr Martini said, with a lot of near misses and concern for pedestrian safety.

“At the moment we’ve got a preliminary design looking at a set of traffic lights,” he said. “Signals will also assist pedestrians getting across.”

The intersection is being considered for council funding for a detailed design and traffic analysis.

Mr Martini said two of three roundabouts had already been built in the area, along the Barnard Street - Chum Street link.

Roundabouts at Booth and Lily streets have already been built with a third at Honeysuckle Street still to come.

An increase in traffic along Sternberg Street has led to more risky behaviours from drivers trying to navigate the right-hand turn from Mundy Street, Mr Martini said.

“Sternberg Street, whilst it’s not an arterial road, it does get an increased number of traffic,” he said.

The council is still working through potential options for the site, but it could include traffic islands or prohibiting right-hand turns from Mundy Street.

This intersection is included in the list due to an increase in traffic from development in the area, Mr Martini said.

A roundabout would be the most logical treatment to manage turning and cross traffic movements, he said.

“The challenge there is we have an offset intersection and, with an increase in traffic numbers from Jackass Flat and Epsom areas, that is generating more near misses and confusion from the offset intersection.”

A roundabout is one potential solution the council is looking at to address turning and cross traffic movements at this intersection.

“It forms one of probably two key links between Eaglehawk and Maiden Gully,” Mr Martini said of Taylor Street.

“We’ve seen an increase in traffic numbers and that will continue to build as we get more development in the Maiden Gully area.”

The intersection has previously been considered under the Black Spot Funding Programme, and although unsuccessful, it will continue to be considered as a candidate project.

A detailed preliminary design has been completed for this site, looking at the potential for a roundabout to better manage the intersection.

“There’s been a few minor accidents at that site in the recent past and we’re also seeing considerable growth of traffic,” Mr Martini said.

The council has applied for external funding in the past but has been unsuccessful.

Mr Martini said council would continue to monitor traffic growth and accidents at the site.

A number of crashes and near misses at this intersection led to a Goornong CFA member in March calling for the road to be upgraded.

Mr Martini said a number of works had since been carried out at the site, including line-marking and highlighting signage on approach.

He said the council would hold future discussions with the CFA and at this stage preparatory work was being done for the 2018-19 budget.

Possible upgrades would likely put bends in the road at the approach to the stop sign, forcing vehicles to slow down.