Willy Road

Now you see it, now you don't.

The horse trough on the south west corner of Ingles St has been dismantled and rebuilt just a few metres from its original location as part of re-modelling this intersection. This is one of several such horse troughs in Port Melbourne reminding us of when horses pulled the heavy freight on these routes.

It is a broad and wide intersection where heavy and light vehicles cross each other's path. Thankfully it will soon become safer.

As part of VicRoads Safer Road Infrastructure Program, $270,000 has been allocated to remodel the traffic signal to provide mast arms and fully controlled right turns on the Ingles St (north) and Normanby Road (east) approaches. LRF traffic signal lanterns and skid resistant pavement surfacing will form part of the upgrade.

Hands Up!

Port Melbourne Primary through its Travel Well programme has joined this great programme run by Bicycle Victoria.
HANDS UP! Active Travel Surveys are conducted each month by teachers asking students to: "Put your Hands Up! If you walked, rode, came by public transport or car to school today ..."
HANDS UP! for Port Melbourne Primary for April was 48.62%. This is a fantastic start for this programme at the school.
http://www.bv.com.au/join-in/40587/

Rouse St revisited

The trees went in on Friday.
The works on Rouse St are now nearly done, with all north/south crossings improved for walkability.
These changes reflect that Rouse St is now a residential rather than an industrial street. Instead of a major through road for cars to travel at speed it is now a smooth road for cars, cyclists and trees.
New openings were created between Dow and Bay St to allow residents of Bayview and 15 Beach St to get through.

The trees are eucyalyptus scoparia http://www.metrotrees.com.au/treehandbook/page-listings/eucalyptus-scoparia.html

A resident reports 'A road made safe and attractive'.

Plummer St bypass opens

The long awaited Plummer St bypass was opened with a bit less fanfare than the new Eastlink on Thursday 12 June by the Minister for Roads and Ports, Tim Pallas.
Residents of Williamstown Road have campaigned for over a decade for a solution to the traffic they have borne since the closure of the Graham St on ramp to the West Gate freeway.
With two sets of traffic lights, and smooth as silk bitumen, it is anticipated that it will make a preferred trip for truck drivers accessing the freeway network.
The next step is to get Dockside Road, the road inside the port boundary, built to get the remainder of the heavy truck traffic off Williamstown Road.
Then they can sleep in peace.

North Port Oval

The Boroughs won convincingly against North Ballarat yesterday.

The best part of going to North Port Oval is being able to sit right on the fence, and go on to the ground at half time to hear the coach.

Another thing people appreciate is that Port is a stand alone club.

The Club is rearing to get going with building a new facility at the ground. The new building will provide facilities and meeting rooms, as well as re-arranging the space under the heritage grandstand to make better changerooms for players.

In a partnership between the State Government, the Club, the City of Port Phillip and the AFL, intenstive planning is underway to work out how best to allocate the welcome funding towards the works that need to be done at the ground.

http://www.sportingpulse.com/club_info.cgi?client=1-118-10462-0-0&sID=56265&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=5417552&sectionID=56265

Coming round the bend

It is perplexing to many people that the speed limit in Bay St is 60 kph. While it is pretty difficult to get up to 40 kms in the heart of Bay St, especially on a nice day, at the city end of Bay St it is a different story.
Cars travelling from the city go round the bend at speed.

The Port Melbourne traders want to see the limit reduced to 40 kph as well as a pedestrian crossing at the northern end of the street.

I will work to get VicRoads support for 40 kph in Bay St.

Safe crossing for Liardet/Bay St

The bold take on the Liardet/Bay intersection, while others avoid it if they can.

I will work in council and with VicRoads to get a safer solution to the Bay/Liardet intersection.

Emerging from the fog

An unusual fog this morning added a quiet and soft mood to familiar views from the beach at Beacon Cove. The fog was lifting when I saw this ship emerge silently from the river.