Road
MONA VALE ROAD UPGRADE BACKLASH
Mona Vale Road
madness
UPGRADE BACKLASH
By Niki Waldegrave - Peninsula Living - The Voice of Pittwater
Works on Mona Vale Road East begin in February, but Pittwater residents insist the western side should be fixed first.
The contract for the upgrade of Mona Vale Road East has been awarded to Georgiou Group Pty Ltd and on site works are expected to commence next month (February 2019).
The $140 million project, between Foley Street at Mona Vale and Manor Road at Ingleside, will involve building additional climbing and descending lanes to improve travel times, and the introduction of median separation and a heavy vehicle arrestor bed to help address the road's tragic crash history.
But local residents' group Friends of Mona Vale Road claims Mona Vale Road West should be upgraded first to avoid the present grid locked traffic conditions at Powderworks Road and Terrey Hills and improve safety.
"The problem is, it's a minimalist design," the group's spokesperson Phil Walker tells Peninsula Living.
"It's the standard 80km/h upgrade but fails to address the social, environmental and landscape problems. It also fails to fully cover the safety problems."
Community group Friends of Mona Vale Road claims the current upgrade plans will worsen the bottleneck at the Baha'i Temple/Powderworks Road intersection.
The group has been in discussion with the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) for six years fighting for what they believe is a safer outcome - to upgrade Mona Vale Road West first, lower the 80km/h speed limit to 30km/h for trucks and buses on a section of Mona Vale Road East, and to provide better pedestrian and cyclist access at grade-level bridges.
Pittwater crusader John Illingsworth published a video titled Mona Vale Road Madness last year detailing these conversations, but those discussions ended last year, and Mr Walker only managed to gain access to the plans for the Mona Vale Road East project after lodging a GIPA (the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009).
"It's been six years since Friends of Mona Vale Road started discussions with the RMS," explains Mr Walker. "Work is starting in February, yet residents' safety concerns have not been addressed."
The new 3500 home development at Ingleside is being scrapped due to bushfire risk, but Friends of Mona Vale Road says the road upgrade still doesn't cater for current residents using the road, let alone an influx of new ones.
"The upgrade fails to deal with the social aspects, which is the crossings between the two sides of Ingleside and the pedestrian and cyclist access," adds Mr Walker.
"It has failed to deal sensitively with the landscape issues at Mona Vale Escarpment. It's going to be nine lanes wide at the arrestor bed on the steepest part of our escarpment."
The RMS is installing a truck arrestor bed on the left-hand side of the left hand descending lane, but the group claims arrestor beds need to be on both sides of the lanes.
"If a truck gets caught in the outside lane, on the present plan, they won't be able to get to the arrestor bed," Mr Walker tells Peninsula Living.
"The major flaw with this truck arrestor bed design is the restricted length of its entrance.
"A struggling truck driver would only have milliseconds to identify and turn into the arrestor bed.
It's like missing the driveway on a house - once you miss it, it's gone. A runaway B-double truck of up to 92 tonnes could be doing up to 300 km/h once it reaches the planned set of traffic lights at the bottom of the hill."
The group claims doing the east upgrade first will also worsen the bottleneck at the Baha'i Temple/Powderworks Road intersection.
"All traffic will still have to merge into the one west-bound lane," adds Mr Walker. "So, we're spending $140 million to have a parking lot."
An RMS spokesperson tells Peninsula Living, "The RMS has prioritised upgrades to the eastern end of Mona Vale Road to address known congestion and safety issues.
"The design of the road, including the truck arrestor bed, was subject to a road safety audit by specialists prior to finalisation of the design. The audit also concluded the arrestor bed being installed, as part of the Mona Vale Road East upgrade is consistent with road safety standards.
"There will be a 60km/h truck and bus speed limit for the downhill descent from Ingleside Road to the base of the escarpment. All heavy vehicles will be required to only use the kerb-side lane for descent and regulatory signs will also be installed along the length of the alignment.
"The Mona Vale Road East project includes a fauna overpass and underpass to link Katandra Bushland Sanctuary to Ingleside Chase, providing three-metre-wide shoulders along Mona Vale Road between Manor Road and Daydream Street to allow a safer area for breakdowns.
"The RMS is continuing to carry out detailed designs for the proposed Mona Vale Road West upgrade which will provide a safer and more efficient road," the RMS spokesperson adds.
ENDS
DOWNLOAD THE PENINSULA LIVING ARTICLE AS A PDF
Link to GIPA lodged and NCAT Review to obtain Mona Vale Road East Upgrade plans as referred to in article
Link to Mona Vale Road East Upgrade RMS Plans and Designs as referred to in article
https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1ly38yP1e4ULT54K1QDXV1AXWdGWoQoh1&export=download
Link to John Illingsworth's Mona Vale Road Madness video as referred to in article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4DEaC2FQT8
Link to Kuring – Gai Soil Recycling Truck Speeding down “DEATH HILL” in Mona Vale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGQZv0Yx414
Other Links
https://friendsofmonavale.weebly.com/mona-vale-road-upgrade.html