Work on Bridge St - west of the railway line

A central median will be painted onto the road - an example of this approach can be seen in Pickles St. Although only a visual barrier, the painted median is effective in separating and slowing traffic. Pedestrian refuges at Ross and Derham intersections will make it easier for pedestrians to cross Bridge St. Trees and landscaping are also part of the plan. And by the way - yesterday I met two of Derham's descendants at the gathering to mark the 125th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Church Hall at Holy Trinity in Bay St. Have a look when you pass to see the foundation stone laid by F T Derham, postmaster general at that time. He had also been a councillor and mayor in Sandridge and son in law and business partner of Thomas Swallow of Swallow and Ariell. He introduced the penny post to Victoria.

At last!

Bridge and Ross St re-opens to traffic tomorrow. Bridge St residents will once again experience traffic while Farrell St residents will have that pressure eased. Hopefully people who have been discouraged by the works from using Bridge St as a through route will stay away.

Swallow/Ross/Byrne

The re-instated road opening at Swallow/Ross/Byrne has several improved safety features compared to the one it replaces. The splitter island, shown here, keeps motorists from straying to the wrong side of the road. The road is narrow - creating a low speed environment and re-inforcing that this is a local access rather than a through route. A raised pavement will be installed to make it clear that pedestrians have priority at the crossing. Once the raised crossing has been installed, the temporary road opening will be closed. More trees will be planted including a feature jacaranda tree.

Works coming to an end

John Holland/Melbourne Water has begun dismantling the worksite for the Melbourne Main Sewer at Swallow St. The road opening at Swallow/Ross/Byrne will be re-instated where it was before the works began. Following meetings with residents, changes have been made to the design to make it safer for pedestrians. Landscaping improvements will also be incorporated. This road opening provides important local access from Garden City to Bay St - so that residents can avoid Williamstown Road and Graham St.

Pedestrian safety first at Bay/Liardet intersection

Tonight work is underway to install a pedestrian crossing on the western side of Liardet St at Bay St. These are formal pedestrian crossings that require that 'a driver must give way to any pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing' [Road Safety Rules 2009, amended Oct 2010]

Williamtown Road and Plummer St

Traffic volumes on Williamstown Rd have declined over the last 10 years.

Council's annual traffic survey site east of Page St shows

• 1999: 23,000 vehicles per day [vpd], 2010: 17,300 vpd, a reduction of 6,500 vpd
• of those vehicles, in 1999, 2,300 were trucks, and in 2010: 2,008 were trucks

It was anticipated in 2002 that Plummer St would carry in the order of 5,000 to 7,000 vpd. Surveys in February 2010 showed it was carrying 10,000 vpd. The Plummer St bypass is working. The survey shows that while there has been an increase in traffic overall, traffic volumes on Williamstown Rd have declined.

Bay Liardet intersection

A reminder of the meeting to consider two options for safety improvements at this intersection at the Port Melbourne Town Hall this Wednesday 4 August between 6 and 7.30 pm.

For more background information and to fill in the survey, click here.

In the background, the familiar shops are located on land once reserved for a market.

Suggesting improvements to the Bay/Liardet intersection

I am so glad that options are being designed to improve the safety of the Bay/Liardet intersection, identified by most people in Port Melbourne as unsafe and frustrating to cross - especially for pedestrians.
Any design will be subject to VicRoads approval as this is an arterial road, managed by VicRoads (and not the Council).
Click here to find out about the options being considered and to fill out a survey.
A meeting to present the options for your consideration and improvement will be held at the Port Melbourne Town Hall on Wednesday 4 August from 6 to 7.30 pm

Reminding drivers of their responsibilities in local areas

The City of Port Phillip is supported by Road Safe Inner Melbourne in deploying this speed trailer around the municipality at locations where residents have raised concerns about traffic speeds.
It is currently working on Todd Road near the Boulevard, where the display shows that the vehicle which has just passed was travelling at 57 kph.
It seems to be news to some drivers that 50 kph is the default speed limit unless otherwise signed.

Carparking at Kyme Place and in the Bay St precinct

There will still be publicly accessible carparking at Kyme Place in the new development as follows:

Kyme Place
There are 33 places in the carpark at Kyme Place currently.
There will be a net loss to the public of 5 spaces from the approved housing development. That means there will still be 28 spaces publicly available.

[7 spaces will be lost from within the car park and 2 will be gained on Liardet St outside A Simple Affair where the cross over will be re-instated, including a disabled parking place.]
Liardet St

Recent council works have added to the supply of on-street parking.
The kerb and channel works in Liardet Street (between Esplanade East and Dow St) in December 2008/January 2009 created 10 new spaces.
More recently, as part of the reconstruction of the kerb and channel between Bay and Princes St, 12 new spaces have been created which were not taken into account at the time of the planning decision.
The steering committee for the family and children’s centre in Liardet St are actively considering how new carparking can be created to service that facility without taking away play space for children.

South of Graham Street

Additional parking for shopping and visitors was required as part of the planning approvals for Bayview 142 spaces (cnr Rouse/Bay eastern side), Bayshore 130 spaces (cnr Rouse/Bay western side), and Bianca 108 spaces (the curvy building). That is a total of 380 spaces.

These carparks are all open and accessible to the public. Bayview and Bayshore carparks are run by commercial operators who offer all day parking at competitive rates. They are currently under utilised.

Port of Melbourne Community Forum

At last night's meeting at Life Saving Victoria Headquarters, a status report on Williamstown Road was provided.

• vehicle volumes on Williamstown Road have remained stable over the past 3 years. It is positive there has been no increase as traffic volumes generally increase by about 2 to 3% p/a
• heavy truck traffic on Williamstown Road, west of Graham, is down approx 300 vehicles per day
• Plummer St is carrying in the order of 1,500 trucks per day

People questioned whether the full potential of the Plummer St bypass was being realised and raised a number of issues:

• people doing rat runs through Garden City to avoid queuing at Graham
• signage and promotion of the route

These issues will be taken up and followed up.

Success!

A new flashing 40 sign has been installed on the descent from the Graham St overpass following advocacy from Port Melbourne Primary's Travel Well Committee.

Parents have reported a change in driver behaviour already.

Why were those palm trees removed in Bay St?

A turning lane and break in the median is being constructed in Bay St (between Rouse and Graham) to create access to the Bianca development and the public parking in that development - a VicRoads condition on the planning permit.
The work cannot be done until a power pole is moved from the site.
This is what has caused the delay.

Police act on safety

• 24 drivers in a 6 hour period were apprehended by Police for driving while using mobiles (not hands free) in the vicinity of the Port Melbourne Town Hall in March.
  
• 3 drivers in 30 minutes were apprehended for speeding for travelling 15 kph above the speed limit on the Plummer St bypass.

These figures were presented to the Road Safe Inner Melbourne Committee on which I am the City of Port Phillip representative.

source: Victoria Police Port Phillip Traffic Management Unit

Port Melbourne - you should see us now!

The Port Melbourne traders' association launched their new logo on the side of these 'pedapods'.

The body of the cab is made from recycled plastic.

Nearly finished!

Roadworks between Esplanade East and Dow St

The works begun on the 2 December 2008 are scheduled to be completed by Friday 13 March 2009. The completion time for the project had to be extended by approximately 2-3 weeks due the re-work associated with the kerb and channel and the extreme weather conditions that had been experienced over the preceding few weeks.

A section of approximately 30m of concrete kerb and channel had to be removed and reconstructed, at the contractor’s expense, as it did not meet Council’s standards. The budget is not affected.

The purposes of the works are to:

• make it easier to cross the road


• make provision for cyclists


• slow traffic


• provide 11 extra parking spaces see post of 17 February
  

Carparking in Liardet St

The works taking place in Liardet Street between Dow St and Esplanade East will create 11 extra carparking places as follows:

1. Liardet St N/W corner -1 x extra 60 degree angle car spaces, unrestricted.
2. Liardet St N/E corner - 1 x extra 60 degree angle car space, unrestricted.
3. Liardet St S/E corner - 3 x extra 60 degree angle car space, unrestricted.
4. Liardet St S/W corner - 1 x extra 60 degree angle car space, permit zone.
5. Esplanade West, Eastern corner - 1 x extra parallel car space time restricted.
6. Esplanade West, Western corner - 2 x extra parallel car spaces time restricted.
7. Dow Street S/E corner - 1 x extra parallel car space permit zone.
8. Dow Street S/W corner - 1 x extra parallel car space time restricted.

Priorities for Garden City and Fishermens Bend

• early implementation of the Garden City Reserve and Sandridge Beach landscape plans including paths, lighting and more trees


• getting an effective buffer in place between the port and Garden City


• protecting resident amenity from port intensification and increased freight traffic by:


• making the Plummer St bypass the route of choice for heavy traffic


• working to achieve a Dockside Road that exits directly from the port


• supporting the rail link from Webb Dock to get freight off road and onto rail


• ensuring no b triples on residential streets


• much work at Murphy's Reserve to further improve the grounds including replacing the fence on Plummer St as a priority

Staggered intersection at Williamstown Road

Whereas until recently very few people crossed Williamstown Road on foot, since Bunnings opened, many people are making this crossing.
Today at the evening peak, I observed two primary school students crossing from west to east on Williamstown Road.

Bay/Liardet St intersection tops safety concerns

My top traffic and safety issues are

• the Bay/Liardet St intersection


• pedestrian crossing from Bridge St across Williamstown Road at Bunnings


• 40 kph for Bay St (north of Bridge St)

I will work with Council and VicRoads to get these hot spots fixed.