TRAFFIC lights will be installed at one of Morisset’s most notorious intersections.
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Roads and Maritime Services is seeking feedback from the community on its plans to improve the intersection of Macquarie Street and Fishery Point Road.
The intersection is the gateway to the Morisset peninsula and to growing residential areas including Bonnells Bay, Morisset Park, Silverwater, Yarrawonga Park and Balcolyn.
Member for Lake Macquarie, Greg Piper, said the state government had allocated $150,000 this financial year to plan for safety and traffic flow improvements at the intersection.
“The RMS proposal includes the installation of traffic lights at the intersection to better manage traffic movements and improve motorist safety, especially for vehicles turning in and out of Fishery Point Road,” Mr Piper said.
The Lakes Mail understands that some residents on Macquarie Street, who live near the intersection, will object to the RMS’s plan for the creation of a no-stopping zone at the front of their properties.
Juney Gordon has lived on Macquarie Street since 1992.
She said traffic lights were “badly needed” at the intersection.
“The sooner the better, in my view,” she said.
“But I am dead against the no-stopping zone that the RMS wants to make outside the properties fronting Macquarie Street.
“The no-stopping zone won’t affect where I live, but these affected people need to have access to their properties.”
She said suggestions that the affected residents could instead use the laneway behind their houses to access their properties was flawed on two counts.
Ms Gordon said poor drainage meant the lane was often “quite soft”.
And creating the proposed no-stopping zone would mean building over the top of water mains that would need to be accessed for maintenance, she said.
Ms Gordon said residents could retain access to their houses if the proposed no-stopping zone was instead shifted to the railway side of the road.
“The no-stopping area could be relocated if everything was moved fractionally to the railway side of the road,” she said.
Other key features of the RMS plan include construction of raised concrete medians and changes to line marking to prevent motorists from crossing to the wrong side of the road.
Two right-turn lanes are proposed from Macquarie Street into Fishery Point Road, and road widening is proposed to provide a second southbound lane on Fishery Point Road between Macquarie and Pulbah streets.
Mr Piper said the plan appeared to be sound.
“For traffic movements in and out, it seems to work,” he said.
“I can’t see anything other than traffic lights being able to accommodate the demand we have there now.”
Mr Piper said the loss of on-street parking spaces on Macquarie Street could be an issue for residents.
“I’ll wait and hear what people have got to say.”
RMS said the proposed improvements had been prompted largely by the increase in traffic movements at the intersection.
“Traffic volumes through the Macquarie Street and Fishery Point Road intersection at Morisset are around 1752 vehicles per hour in the morning peak, and 1999 vehicles per hour in the afternoon peak,” an RMS spokesperson said.
Mr Piper said a roundabout was no longer an option for the intersection.
“I know people talk about roundabouts, but that option’s gone. There’s no opportunity for that.”
He said the prohibitive cost of a roundabout, and the limited construction space available at the intersection, meant traffic lights were the only option.
More information and a copy of the proposed design is available online at rms.nsw.gov.au/haveyoursay.
Feedback is invited from the community until Friday, May 11, and can be provided by emailing paul.galvin@rms.nsw.gov.au.
