A Bendigo trucking company co-director says heavy vehicles should be able to navigate a new roundabout under construction at the right speed, though some drivers under deadlines could push the limits and mount the kerb.
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It comes after VicRoads moved to assure the public the roundabout being built at the intersection of the Calter Alternate Highway and Bendigo-Maryborough Road would be big enough for trucks, when newly poured concrete guttering was damaged by passing trucks.
VicRoads said the damage was done before the concrete kerbing had cured to full strength.
J&A Logistics’ Andrew Turpie was driving through the intersection on the day the concrete was poured and noticed tyre marks on a return trip soon after.
Although he believed the roundabout could be tight for anything bigger than a B-double, he thought trucks probably would be able to get through if they slowed down enough.
(BELOW: Slide the bar left or right to see some of the damage to the roundabout, as marked by Bendigo Advertiser reader Bill Whitbread.)
“The point of a roundabout is to slow people down. That intersection is dangerous and has been so for years,” he said.
However, he noted truck drivers were not time-rich and some might be tempted to push their limits and mount the kerb.
Symes Transport Bendigo director Greg Symes had not seen plans for the Lockwood Crossing but knew of roundabouts within city limits where trucks had mounted kerbs and damaged clay bricks.
He said sometimes there was not much truck drivers could do. It was a risk of installing roundabouts on routes allocated to over-dimensional vehicles.
VicRoads classed over-dimensionals as exceeding either five metres in height, five metres in width, 30 metres long or 100 tonnes gross mass.
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VicRoads Nothern Regional Director Mal Kersting said the roundabout had been designed with a safe system approach that would reduce the risk and severity of crashes.
“If driven at a safe speed, the roundabout is of sufficient size to cater for large trucks,” he said.
The roundabout had been designed for trucks carrying bigger loads and included a concrete apron behind the kerb for over-dimensionals, though VicRoads said that should not be seen as an incentive to drive through at unsafe speeds.
All vehicles were required to drive at a speed allowing them to give way to any traffic within the roundabout, and to stay on the road surface without mounting the kerb.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
