Right turn allowed

By Kath Gannaway
RESIDENTS of King Street in Yarra Glen have won the right to turn right into Bell Street.
The Yarra Glen Township Group and residents of King Street and linking residential streets rejected a design for the King/Bell streets intersection round-about which restricted access and departure from King Street and would have directed heavy vehicle traffic into the residential streets.
VicRoads were told by the unhappy residents in September to “go back to the drawing board” and come up with an acceptable alternative.
Following a meeting between the Shire of Yarra Ranges and VicRoads last week, details of that alternative design have now been released.
VicRoads Project Director Frank De Santis said they had taken residents’ comments on board when preparing the final layout.
“We had previously proposed to ban right turns out of King Street. But following further investigations, cars and heavy vehicles can continue to turn right out of King Street once the roundabout is built,” Mr De Santis said. He explained that, while right turns directly into King Street at Bell Street would not be allowed under the new design, south-travelling drivers wanting to access King Street could go around the roundabout to turn left into King Street.
Yarra Ranges manager civil development services Mark Vermalis and Ryrie Ward representative Cr Jeanette McRae and residents have welcomed the change of plans.
“Essentially it gives full access to people in King Street and surrounding streets and it alleviates the need to direct any other traffic into local roads,” Mr Vermalis said.
Cr McRae said a lot of energy had been invested by all the parties into reaching a suitable, negotiated outcome and commended the efforts of the community and the shire in advocating for an appropriate design treatment.
Malcolm Calder, Chairman of the Yarra Glen Township Group said the new design addressed the concerns raised by residents.
Bruce Nixon said banning right turns “was just ridiculous”, but added that he was pleased VicRoads had been prepared to “go back to the drawing board”.
“That’s what we wanted in the first place,” he said.
Noel Nicolson, another King Street resident also welcomed the news saying it was what residents had advocated for.
“I’m very pleased about the roundabout … we can go around it. I hope others are pleased too,” Ms Nicolson said.
The Shire of Yarra Ranges is now pushing for the speed limit in Bell Street to be reduced from 60kph to 50kph. Mr Vermalis said this move would not only bring the township into line with other similar townships in Yarra Ranges, but would act as a disincentive to heavy vehicles to opt for Bell Street over the new bypass.
Residents on VicRoads’ ‘roundabout’ mailing list have been emailed the design information, it has also been displayed on the information board in Bell Street and is on the project webpage.
Mr De Santis said a letter-drop to all households in Yarra Glen would happen over the coming fortnight.