​BDCA Traffic Advisory Group – Update 27th June 2024
I suppose you might think I had disappeared into oblivion, since the last report was in November ’23 and our meeting on the 6th December? A long 6 months of nothing, with prompts in April and May, requesting information on the design progress. “It’s nearly finished within a few weeks.”
On 19th December, Alison Rickard and I met with Catherine King MP, to see if there were any other ways of pursuing our concerns. She was very informative; however, the Midland Hwy. is a State responsibility. Catherine did, on our behalf, write to the State Minister for Roads, but the reply back was that the process was being done through the RRV Committee.
Catherine did mention that the terms of reference for Blackspot funding are changing. Our problem may meet the new terms in reference to the Mt Buninyong Road & Midland Hwy. for slowing trucks down the hill.  Blackspot funding can be applied for by the community or Council. She encouraged us to work with Council & RRV to nominate for funding jointly, to make sure that there is support by all involved.
We have discussed this with Cr. Ben Taylor, but still waiting on a meeting with Council staff & CEO to advance further.
Finally, on 19th June, the RRV group reconvened to discuss the 3 projects.
The consultants will be provided with meeting feedback, then hopefully finalise designs.
Warrenheip St - proposes to widen & delineate the bicycle lanes both sides, that will reduce the central median slightly.  However we insisted the reduced median remain to still provide some refuge for people crossing, as they do now.
The speed limit will be reduced to 40kph for the section that is now 50kph.
Roundabout, Raised Pedestrian Xings - proposed for the 4 entries, will require extra drainage work to overcome the raised platforms inhibiting the current channel flows. The crossings will be set back from the roundabout to allow a vehicle length storage, before entering  the intersection.
Inglis St., School Xing – as mentioned in the November report, I had spoken to the resident Leo O’Loughlin family and were not happy with the original proposal. I reported back to RRV and presented an alternative design that the resident had agreed with. It included to leave the existing road access at Inglis St, but align a raised pedestrian Xing, over the service road, thus providing a safe crossing to the north footpath. Believe it or not, they accepted the idea without question!
Midland Hwy Inglis to Lal Lal St – This is proposed to utilise the left uphill lane, to provide turn lanes at each intersection, creating a safer environment and will indicate to drivers a more restricted pavement, thus hopefully reducing vehicle speeds.
The next meeting in July, hopefully we will have some finalised plans to view, thus I’ll arrange our next meeting to follow.
Robert Elshaug Convenor
27 June’24