By Jed Lanyon
A CFA captain has expressed his frustrations over roadworks taking place on the Maroondah Highway stating that his brigade hadn’t been consulted by the state government.
In a response to a parliamentary question from Eildon MP Cindy McLeish previously published by Star Mail, Roads Minister Ben Carroll said, “The Department of Transport has worked closely with emergency services”, but Coldstream CFA captain Sean Bethell said his brigade hasn’t received any communication from the Victorian Government about the project.
“The first we heard of the news was the article in the local paper saying what would happen between Coldstream and Healesville,” he said. “We definitely were not notified or consulted about any changes along that roadway.”
The Department of Transport’s (DoT) director for safer roads, Scott Lawrence said Regional Roads Victoria had been in talks with CFA District 13 last year, where feedback from the discussion included the preference for a speed reduction along the highway, which has now been implemented.
“We discussed our early plans with CFA District 13 representatives in 2019 and the feedback was incorporated into our designs. This included introducing a safer speed limit of 80km/h and installing a wide centreline instead of centre barrier to reduce the risk of head-on crashes,” Mr Lawrence said.
“This section of the Maroondah Highway has a significant crash history and normally carries high volumes of tourist traffic – which is why we’re delivering a range of safety upgrades including roadside barriers to prevent serious run-off-road crashes.”
Mr Bethell said he’s frustrated at seeing the speed limit lowered, a view that was shared by vocal residents.
“For the fire brigade, it’s going to make it harder for us to get around traffic at the slower limit of 80km/h. When traffic was doing 100km/h, our likelihood of catching up to the next group of traffic was lower.
“Now that you’re going slower, we’re more likely to be in an accident because you’re passing more traffic grouped together.”
DoT said the speed limit reduction has increased journey times between Coldstream and Healesville by about 90 seconds.
Original designs for the upgrades included centreline barriers, however the new speed limit of 80km/h means they have been replaced with a wide centreline and rumble strip line-marking to reduce the risk of head-on crashes.
Mr Bethell held concerns about those roadside barriers installed close to the edge of the road. His preference would have been to see additional overtaking lanes.
“That’ll cause us a heap of issues with traffic not being able to get off to the side of the road. If there happens to be a fire on the roadside or on a paddock along there, it’ll make access a lot more difficult or we’ll have to block the road in order to put out the fire or whatever we come across.
“We haven’t seen any design work to ascertain what procedures we’ll have to implement if there is a fire in different areas.”
DoT said the new roadside barriers provide regular breaks, with no length of barrier running longer than one kilometre. These breaks include property access points allowing vehicles to pull over or for emergency services to access the roadside.
DoT said Regional Roads Victoria will be in contact with Coldstream and Healesville CFA brigades to discuss the project.
Healesville SES and Healesville CFA were contacted for comment.
