Hill street blues!

By Kath Gannaway
WARBURTON resident Valda Street is calling on neighbours to phone police on 000 if they see a truck losing its load on the steep Martyrs Road hill.
Ms Street’s plea came after a load of steel girders being transported to a construction site near the top of the hill slid off the truck and skidded 400 metres down the hill.
Ms Street said the massive girders came down the road as if they were on a skating rink, coming to a halt at her side gate.
“The thought of what might have happened had someone been driving behind that truck, or walking up the road is just sickening,” Ms Street told the Mail.
Martyrs Road has been promoted as one of the steepest residential roads in Australia by the Warburton Advancement League which holds it’s ‘Up and Running’ race on the road for that very reason.
The Shire of Yarra Ranges engineering department lists the gradient as 27.5 per cent at its steepest point – that is, it rises one metre for every 3.6 metres.
The road is so steep it had to be concreted rather than asphalted because vehicles could not manage the gradient and the asphalt would have ‘slumped’ down the hill.
Ms Street and neighbours say the girder incident, which happened in April, is not an isolated incident. They have photos of a truck which lost a load of bricks and say concrete trucks have to reverse up the hill to avoid losing their load.
With construction of the $60 million Ythan Springs Resort and Spa scheduled to start in November, they say there is an urgent need for measures to be put into place to ensure residents are not put at risk.
Resident Bea Rawlinson said VCAT had dismissed objectors’ concerns about the dangers of large trucks trying to scale Martyrs Road when they granted a planning permit to the Ythan Springs developer.
“This is exactly the type of situation we were concerned about then, and are still concerned about,” she said.
Both Worksafe Victoria and the shire say they are aware of the potential dangers associated with transporting building or other loads up Martyrs Road and will look further into the situation.
However, they say the legal responsibility lies with the transport companies and the drivers.
Worksafe spokesman Michael Birt spoke with the Mail after a visit to the site by a Worksafe inspector last week.
“Anyone using the road needs to make sure their load is secure and be aware of the serious consequences of not doing that,” he said.
“They need to sort that out before they start out up that hill.
“The builder probably ought to let them know of the unusual circumstances of access to their site as well.”
James Martin, the shire’s manager of community relations, said while there was a sign at the bottom of the road advising drivers that the road was steep they would visit the road to see if further signs are needed.
“If anyone in Martyrs Road has loads being delivered, it would certainly be advisable for them to tell the transport companies that this is a very, very steep road and that they will have to take extra precautions to secure their loads,” Mr Martin said.
The shire would see that the message that extra care needed to be taken was clearly communicated to the developers of Ythan Springs when construction started, he said.
Ms Street believes the message will be transported quickly to the transport industry if the legitimate force of law is applied.
“I have been told by everyone I spoke to – VicRoads, the shire, Worksafe and the police themselves – that not securing a load is an offence and that the only way to stop this is to call 000,” she said.