Forum –
Assuming that it ever gets started on time, the redevelopment of the Ocean Beach/Rawson Roads intersection is going to disrupt traffic through this bottleneck for the next five years (“Intersection upgrade likely to cause major disruptions”, PP 018) and is going to cost $32 million.
Given the constraints on the redesign (Council has promised that there will be no road widening), what can we expect to have at the end of our travail but another half-baked piece of makeshift that won’t serve the long-term purpose, because there is no overall planning for transportation movements on the Peninsula – just patchwork elements that can’t be stitched together into a workable pattern.
Money is being thrown at bits and pieces, with no conception of what the Peninsula will need in, say, 25 years’ time, and we are all going to suffer for this lack of any forward thinking by the administration.
It is absolutely typical that one of the corner sites at the intersection has been completely redeveloped without the slightest attempt by the Council to reshape the design to provide some contribution to the intersection improvement.
Is everybody at the Council asleep at the wheel?
Access to this business already greatly diminishes the effectiveness of any efforts to increase flow through the intersection, and it never occurred to anybody on the Council that this problem might be looked at while the project was only on paper?
What passes for planning at Central Coast Council is beyond imagination.
What are they going to do when parking has to be banned on Ocean Beach Road and the kerbside lane has to be reserved for buses, at least during the peak hours?
There are only three ways off the Peninsula – the Rip Bridge, the tortuous route through Woy Woy to West Gosford and Bulls Hill.
Except for the one-vehicle underpass at Shoalhaven Drive, all traffic to Bulls Hill has to take Rawson Road.
Why isn’t there an alternative route using Shoalhaven Drive to an improved underpass onto Woy Woy Road?
Trucks shouldn’t be allowed to use this route, but it would split the car traffic and reduce the pressure on Rawson Rd.
It’s no use the Chamber of Commerce wittering on about the Bulls Hill underpass: that isn’t going to happen, and we need to plan accordingly.
Just think: if the Council hadn’t squandered $15 million on a useless underpass for the level crossing, we could be well on the way with our alternative route now.
Email, July 18
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy