Retired engineer and Singleton resident, John Gould says the issues of both pedestrian safety, and traffic congestion, can be rectified without traffic lights being installed at the John Street roundabout.
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Mr Gould, who worked for the Singleton Shire Council for two decades and was involved in many major projects, such as the construction of Levee Bank and Ryan Avenue, is confident constructing a $500 000 Dunolly Bypass is a better option than scraping the existing roundabout. And, he suggested this to Council before they spent about $1.2 million on the Dunolly upgrade, and diversion.
“In July 2007 Parsons Brinkerhoff submitted a report to Council analysing the traffic impacts of all future developments – 2 120 additional dwellings - on the town road system,” Mr Gould explains.
“The consultants rated the Level of Service for this roundabout in the future to be “A” in the morning and “C” in the evening peak, and so recommended the roundabout should remain.”
He says this was because most cars heading over the river used Newton Street.
“However, later on when Newton Street was closed to west-bound cars and motorists had to travel the long way around in Dunolly many chose to turn right into Campbell Street instead, resulting in the current congestion. For a construction cost of under half a million it would be practicable to correct this shortcoming by building a new local by-pass roadway just to the north of Newton Street.”
Mr Gould says the two affected dwellings would need to be re-sited (above flood level) to face a widened Bank Street, and it is estimated the reduced travel distance would collectively save motorists about $500,000 per year. "This would encourage drivers to once again use the old bridge and reduce the amount of people turning off the roundabout and onto Campbell Street to access the new bridge. In turn making it easier for people to cross Campbell Street.”
