Bookham residents have rejected a proposed change to the Hume Highway intersection which gives access to Bookham and Barney’s Café via Conroy street, as more dangerous than what’s there now.
Residents are also disappointed with the lack of consultation. A Transport for NSW representative visited Barney’s owner Marguerite Julian last week and presented a finished proposal, but the rest of the community were unaware anything was happening including members of the emergency services which respond to accidents at the location. Transport for NSW has now extended by one week a submission deadline to this coming Friday (July 10) due to community requests and advocacy from Yass Valley Times.
The proposal involves shutting down the roundabout style turning lanes inside the dual-carriageway intersection altogether and installing U-turn bays 250 metres either side of the existing intersection. Minor improvements are proposed for the south-bound exit onto Conroy.
“Looking at the proposed U-turn bays, it hasn’t solved the problem; it’s just moved it. It’s asking you to join fast-moving traffic to go south-bound, slow down to then cross both of them, to do a U-turn to do it again, so you have to do it twice, and from an emergency services vehicle point of view, it’s not an improvement. We come out there and join the highway with the fire tankers, that’s a worse outcome for us what they’ve proposed there,” Dave Young, Bookham Rural Fire Brigade Captain.
Local resident Stan Waldron believes more money to fund a better solution is needed.
“This intersection would not comply with any standard today. This is b-double access, and it just seems amazing that they have come up with this plan. Because of the speed of the traffic, it’s probably even more serious than the Barton in a way. Every ten kilometres an hour of speed that you increase can correlate to deaths. And that’s the thing. A school bus full of children killed, is that what it takes to do it properly?” Mr Stan Waldron questioned.
Barney’s café owner Marguerite Julian is worried it will also impact on her business and the community.
“I imagine it will affect the business because it will make it more difficult for people to come up the highway for people going north. It’s not just Barney’s now it’s Bookham in the future. The community is working on ideas, developing the sheep show, so there are issues besides Barney’s,” Ms Julian explained.
Manager of Barney’s, Karen Ashlin, sees the near misses from the café.
“We need signage, and we need trees cleared. They told us nine months ago they were going to clear some of those trees, they’ve got nowhere. We need longer ramps in and out. People from Melbourne won’t come to the shop if they have to do a U-turn. It’s just going to be worse than what it is now. It’s going to be really bad accidents.”
Tony and Louise Armour, local farmers, want the community to be adequately engaged to get the best solution for locals and drivers.
“It’s three hours out of Sydney, a lot of people will push it to get this far. Turning left into the south-bound lane, people are not aware that there is no acceleration lane there, so you’re straight out into the traffic going at 110 kilometres. People from Yass, northbound end, rightly or wrongly having to swerve out usually to get into the other lane, certainly the one where the woman was killed was a truckload of cattle. We are all in agreement we need slip lanes, extra warnings such as white strips on the road and signage.”
Louise Armour said it’s a known fatigue zone.
“Which is why they built such a large rest area in the first place. A lot of people make the left turn too quick, hit the concrete (median strip) in the middle and hit the arm cove, the edge of the (cattle) grid and finish up down in the trees. It was a cost-saving measure at the time, and it remains a cost issue, that’ why they are avoiding it because they don’t want to do the earthworks, but the cost has been paid in human life, absolutely,” Mrs Armour stressed.
Bookham Rural Fire brigade volunteers attend accidents on the Hume highway with the most recent on the June long weekend.
“That only narrowly averted being multiple fatalities. There was a b-double-truck, there was a three-car pile-up; two cars and a light truck as it was and if we didn’t have a capable driver in the b-double, anyone else would have cleaned up all three, and you would have had multiple fatalities,” said Captain Young.
Doug Painting was part of the volunteer fire crew which responded.
“There were nine people involved in that accident of which there were five children. That’s impacted nine people’s lives, and those children will remember it,” Mr Painting emphasised.
A Transport NSW document describes the recent accident as the trigger for fast-tracking the intersection shut down and U-turn installations.
A road engineer himself, Mr Painting says any design needs to address visibility.
“If you’re in a car, you’re on an incline, you’re sitting down low, and you can’t see where you have to drive. That could be solved by raising the pavement on the approach. The corner is also too tight. You can’t get around there with a single trailer not to mention a b-double without hitting the MK railing with your trailer,” Mr painting stressed.
Captain Young is concerned about the impact on local traffic movements.
“The biggest fear I have is when the highway is busy. The design would make it much more difficult for anyone from the other side at the oval or playing cricket to come between the two sides of Bookham, and we could potentially see more accidents in it. Anything that happens there, we want to see less (accidents), but unfortunately, they’ve said “oh no, this is what we are doing up the Pacific Highway, this is the new beaut thing; they haven’t listened to a word we’ve said.
Captain Young is passionate about reducing accidents at the location.
“We get to see the accidents and all the near misses. The accidents that the police don’t get called to. I don’t need to go to any more accidents. I’ve had my fill, and so has Doug Painting. We do it because that’s what we do, but if we had to go to another one, it’s one too many,” Bookham Rural Fire Brigade Captain Dave Young.
Transport NSW was contacted but had not responded before print deadline.
Want to see your business in the Yass Valley Times? Contact us on Ads@YassValleyTimes.com.au or call Nyssa on PH 0413 763 216
