New Signalised Intersection - Sumner and Dandenong Intersection.

Most of you would have had first hand experiences with the Sumner Road and intersection alterations that were commissioned on Thursday, 29 September, 2011.  Unfortunately, to keep a corridor open for cyclists, the removal of the medium strip of the replaced bikeway crossing could not be done prior to the signalised intersection being made operative. When this island is removed and three west-bound lanes established at this bottleneck there, it should be safer and some improvements in vehicular traffic flow in this westerly direction, with minor delays and inconvenience to cyclists.

If traffic is still queued at this location, motorists can relax and view the new garden that is to be planted in the medium strip.

The supposed state of the art signalised system that was installed at the intersection still can’t cope with peak time east-bound traffic, and different delays and inconveniences are occurring at this location and vary depending on the direction of approach from either Andaman or Sumner Road, and by time of day or night.

Last week many motorists were so frustrated in their approach along Sumner Road, that they crossed the grassed medium strip and retraced their route to seek an alternative way to work.  The new intersection signals have vastly improved the safety factor with entry and departure to the Caltex garage.  Safety for pedestrians crossing at this intersection is a definite big plus.

While the intersection is much safer 24/7, the new delays in off peak times can be a little frustrating.  The controlled surge release of traffic from Sumner Road has created incidences of traffic queuing at the Horizon Drive / Dandenong Road intersection.  We all have comparisons to make and hopefully with some sequencing fine tuning of the lights, improvements in traffic flow may still happen. 

Regardless of the above, the real issue still lies with the queuing that results for east-bound motorists at the single lane bridge over the Centenary Motorway.  This problem location should have been addressed first by DMR and possibly the removal of the roundabout in favour of intersection lights at Sumner/Dandenong may not have been necessary – now we will never know.  With the assistance of a 1000 signature petition that JRA provided to our State Member for Mt Ommaney, Mrs J Attwood, the present State Government has pledged to have the bridge duplicated. However under this commitment, motorists will have to endure the bottleneck or continue to seek an alternative route until probably 2014/15.  In the mean time JRA has made suggestions to DMR for a band aid solution to aide the flow of east bound traffic at the western roundabout.   We still await the outcome of our proposal (see previous website report).

With the State elections (must be held before June 2012) pending, the JRA executive has also verbally lodged with the Liberal/ National candidate Mrs.Tania Smith, that finding a solution to Sumner Road congestion and upgrade of the Centenary/Western Motorways are two of the most pressing local State issues in the electoral district of Mt Ommaney.  Once JRA knows who will be standing for State elections in the minor parties, these two issues will also be presented to them.  Hopefully, before the election date, their respective party leaders will make a commitment to fund solutions to both issues.