Eurobodalla Council knows where the rubber hits the road this National Road Safety Week, taking real action to save lives on the shire’s local roads network.
Council’s Infrastructure Services Director Warren Sharpe said 2019 saw Council’s technical engineers hook up with roads crew to drive the 1000-plus kilometres that make up the shire’s regional and rural roads, identifying hazards along the way.
“We found over 900 roadside hazards on our rural sealed network and we’re treating the high-priority issues and chasing grants to help remove them,” Mr Sharpe said.
The project was just one of 67 actions listed in the Eurobodalla Road Safety Plan 2019-2022. Mr Sharpe said Council had made good progress against the action items tabled, with most well underway and 17 fully complete.
“The plan is based on the safer systems model, which also guides state and national approaches, with a four-pronged approach – speed, roads, vehicles, people,” he said.
“There’s significant interest in Eurobodalla’s approach, which was well received when we presented to the South East Australia Transport Strategy alliance in Goulburn last week.
“It’s not just widening roads and fixing potholes. It’s things like upgrading line marking so a vehicle’s ‘driver assist’ can read our roads. Or having our road safety officer get in early with future drivers – handing out showbags full of fun road-safety themed activities for children under-5, and road safety information for their parents, at family fun days.”
Mr Sharpe said it was timely that National Road Safety Week fell now, given the spate of road work across the shire. Council is upgrading local roads at more than a dozen sites on top of general maintenance and Transport for NSW upgrades at several locations along the Princes Highway.
“It’s vital road users allow extra travel time, so they can slow down to keep workers safe,” he said, adding patience and courtesy should be universally applied. “It’s not just construction crews. It’s dangerous to speed past anyone on or along any road, whether that’s emergency services, the NRMA, the police, or school-bus kids and coach passengers,” he said.
“Cyclists too are entitled to use the road. Passing vehicles must give cyclists at least a metre clearance if travelling at 60km/h or less and a metre and a half when travelling faster than 60. That’s not just a courtesy, it’s the law and helps keep our cyclists safe.”
To view the Eurobodalla Road Safety Plan, visit Plans and strategies | Eurobodalla Shire Council (nsw.gov.au).
Above: Eurobodalla Council’s child development officer gave out road safety showbags in Batemans Bay on Monday for National Road Safety Week.
