Turn backing

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Ranges Council is backing calls for a left-hand turning lane from Maroondah Highway into Maddens Lane in Coldstream.
Coldstream resident David Barton has called for the turning lane but VicRoads has said there is no evidence it is needed.
Mr Barton recently wrote to Roads Minister Tim Pallas stating that the current arrangement was unsafe and questioned why the intersection had been ignored in the recent $6.2 million upgrade of the highway.
He stated that while many private property entrance ways, including all the wineries, have a side lane for Melbourne-bound traffic to turn off the highway, Maddens Lane does not.
VicRoads regional director for the area Duncan Elliott said that work already carried out provides a safe turn for the volume of traffic using the intersection.
“As part of the recent Maroondah Highway safety improvement works, the road shoulders near the intersection of Maroondah Highway and Maddens Lane were sealed to provide an area for safe turning from the highway for the low number of vehicles that complete this turn each day,” Mr Elliott said.
But Mr Barton said VicRoads’s response was inadequate and wrong.
“Traffic wishing to turn left off the Maroondah Highway into Maddens Lane, as I do each morning, must slow down considerably on the highway before being able to make the turn safely into Maddens Lane,” Mr Barton said.
“This results in traffic following having to also slow down considerably, sometimes to their great surprise and annoyance.”
Mr Barton said with no left-turn exit lane drivers must make the turn from the road-side into Maddens Lane which he said was “steep, gravelled, rough and pot-holed, necessitating a slow approach”.
Yarra Ranges manager of civil development Mark Vermalis said the shire had written to VicRoads supporting Mr Barton’s request.
“The issues he has raised in terms of it being safer to pull out of the way just adds to the local safety at that intersection,” Mr Vermalis said.
“While it’s difficult in any project to have to weigh up what competing needs are, a left hand slip is a project of merit.”
Mr Barton said the turning lane should have been included in the original project.
He said not addressing what he considered a potentially hazardous situation was a glaring omission in a project that he said overall was “a job well done”.
“It is of concern to me that the inadequacy of this intersection will some day result in a serious accident and the intersection should have been upgraded as a part of the recent improvement works,” he said.