By Mikayla van Loon
A proposed solution to Birmingham Road’s safety concerns has been aired, 18 months after a petition was submitted by a concerned parent and resident.
Discussing the item at the Yarra Ranges council meeting on Tuesday 9 April, councillors accepted a traffic management proposal, including a bid for grant money to install a signalised intersection.
In October 2022, Star Mail spoke with lead petitioner Bosa Sofranic-Carter who was calling on the council to improve traffic flow and safety outside Birmingham Primary School in Mount Evelyn.
Receiving close to 90 signatures, Ms Sofranic-Carter said the intersection at Francis Crescent had not kept up with the growth of the suburb nor the population of the school community.
“The area has grown, there’s a bigger population than when that road first became a road and it just needs an upgrade to catch up with the safety that’s required now that there are more people living in the area and using that intersection,” she said at the time.
“There are cars going in so many directions that it’s just a matter of time before, unfortunately, a tragedy happens at that intersection. It is a mismanaged intersection that needs some sort of a solution.”
Birmingham Primary School principal of 20 years, Trish Enzinger, supported the plans stating “this has been an ongoing problem” and confirmed the increases in student and parent numbers.
“The student population when I first came there was 550. It’s now reaching 700. We have one exit from the school which is at the front of the school,” she said.
“The traffic is horrendous. It backs up Francis Crescent and Swansea Road and something really does need to be done about that.”
The council’s proposal puts forward a pitch to upgrade the intersection with traffic lights, costing around $500,000 and $20,000 annually for maintenance.
Radar speed display signs and zig zag line marking have also been commissioned as part of the traffic team’s safety improvements in the more immediate future.
Grateful for the additional safety measures around the pedestrian crossing, Ms Sofranic-Carter said she was still unsure why it took so long for these measures to be undertaken.
“Our neighbouring schools namely Mount Evelyn Primary and Montrose Primary School have had radar signs for some time which begs the question why Birmingham Primary School, the largest school in the area, does not already have this road safety feature,” she said at the meeting on Tuesday.
“Why the students of Birmingham Primary School have not been afforded the same safety considerations as students in neighbouring schools up until now.”
The council has an opportunity to gain funding from Road Safety Victoria for up to $2 million under the Safe Local Roads and Streets Program, which built environment and infrastructure director Hjalmar Philipp confirmed was “through a non competitive process”.
“Each council is allocated up to $2 million to deliver prioritised road safety projects…there is a little bit of an ambiguity around whether it’s a full $2 million or not,” he said.
“We have indications that it will be so we put forward $2 million worth of work…It’s important to manage expectations around what can come out of this process.”
Councillor Tim Heenan said while the costing estimate for the signalised intersection is only half a million dollars, there are other projects and crossings the $1.5 million could be used for.
“[We] dangerous school crossings…in many wards. We have two and a half thousand square kilometres. We’ve got so many townships, we’ve got so many roads. We’ve got so many schools and we have so many problems,” he said.
Mr Philipp said the concept designs for the intersection were not yet finalised after Jenny, a Mount Evelyn resident, who was sitting in the gallery, raised concerns about the movement or eradication of a pedestrian footpath.
“It looks like they want to move the footpath and the crossing closer to the intersection. I’ve seen cars come down around the corner and end up going over the embankment down to where they want people to now cross the road,” she said.
“I don’t think it would be a very safe place to have a crossing closer to that intersection. If the old footpath could be left where it was, when it’s not school time, people could still use the old footpath where it’s not close to the intersection.”
Cr Heenan put forward the recommendation to approve the motion and acknowledged the crossing supervisors who shared their concerns in the report.
“For a period of time in the morning and in the afternoon, it is truly something that needs to have a lot of tolerance, a lot of patience, a lot of understanding that does not always happen,” he said.
“I really take my hat off to the traffic crossing supervisor there every day because their job is so increasingly difficult because of the lack of understanding and respect from car drivers and truck drivers.
“I hope the implementation of what we’re going to do in the short term is going to help and I sincerely hope in the long term we’ll be able to get traffic crossing signals.”
It was passed unanimously.
