Shire of Yarra Ranges asset management officer Bill McMahon says the destruction of safety signs is putting lives at risk.By Kath Gannaway
THE destruction of 100 road safety signs on the Old Warburton Road is putting lives at risk and costing ratepayers thousands of dollars.
Bill McMahon, support officer with the Shire of Yarra Ranges Asset Management Services was clearly frustrated and angry as he pointed out the result of another night of senseless destruction.
The high-visibility CAM (Curve Alignment Marker) signs were installed on a six-kilometre section of the road as part of a $92,000 Black Spot Program completed by VicRoads over the past year.
Mr McMahon said the windy road, which runs between Wesburn and Warburton, had become a popular off-highway route for motorcyclists.
The signs have been designed to reduce impact on the rider if they are hit by a motorbike but this also makes them easy targets for vandals.
“They are on plastic, flexible posts and they just sheer off when they’re hit,” said Mr McMahon who believes, because of the location of many of the signs, either a 4WD or other heavy vehicle with a bull-bar would need to have been used.
VicRoads replaced the first 50 damaged signs, which were discovered during an inspection by VicRoads and the Shire in July.
Just days after they were replaced 30 more were knocked down.
“VicRoads delivered the extra CAMs and we agreed to put them in but when I came up with a contractor last Thursday another 20 signs had been destroyed,” Mr McMahon said.
“It would be pretty obvious to anyone why the signs are there and it’s just hard to work out what they are thinking when they do this sort of thing.”
Mr McMahon said apart from the safety concerns the constant need to repair and replace vandalised public assets was a huge and unnecessary drain on ratepayers’ money and demoralising for shire officers and contractors. “These signs had just been replaced and within days were wrecked again.
In Upwey our contractor was more than frustrated to see walls where he had cleaned off graffiti were covered again the next day.”
“People complain and often don’t realise the contractor has acted quickly in many cases but it can be just days before the same thing has happened again.”
Mr McMahon said the shire was now waiting on replacement poles to repair the signs and asked local residents to be vigilant and report any damage, or other information, which could help catch the offenders, to local police or the shire.
