Main Roads being ‘petty’ on crosswalk

More observant readers may have noticed some paint missing from the “public art installation” being used as a crosswalk on the one-way section of Geraldton’s Marine Terrace. Former Geraldton councillor Paul Connolly said he saw works to remove the paint about to begin two weeks ago while cycling. “That was six o’clock in the morning on Wednesday morning (April 22) — it was still dark when I was riding down there,” he said. “They were getting ready to start sand blasting.” Mr Connolly said when he returned 21/2 hours later, work had ceased, and clearly the paint was proving harder to remove than anticipated. City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn confirmed the City was “reluctantly” complying with a Main Roads directive to remove the unauthorised crosswalk. “Council are not allowed to mark roads without Main Roads’ permission, even on their own roads,” he said. “They have written us many letters to take it off — we are just saddened by the amount of resources we have to divert to deal with Main Roads’ pettiness.” Mr Van Styn said given Main Roads’ “general inaction” when it came to requests to support public safety, the City was “bemused” by the desire to remove a pedestrian crosswalk in a busy mall. “We can’t even get Main Roads to put a right-hand-turn signal on Bayly Street into Chapman Road despite years of community requests,” he said. “At some point someone is going to lose their patience with the ridiculous turning intervals and turn right into Chapman Road and cause a high-speed side-on crash, which is the worst kind of crash.” A Main Roads WA spokesman said the department “has been working with the City since early 2018 to try and resolve concerns at this intersection, which is the responsibility of City”. “In the latest development, the City requested an estimated cost for a full upgrade of the intersection,” the spokesman said. “Main Roads provided an estimate to the City in November 2019 for its consideration and action.” Mr Van Styn said Main Roads continued to “turn a blind eye” to triple road trains using Cream Street near the Port of Geraldton entrance as another example of inaction. “Two elderly ladies were bowled over on their Gophers prior to crossing near Utakarra Road,” he said. Main Roads said the department had been “working with the City and other stakeholders ... to resolve the ... issues at Cream Street since 2013”. “Cream Street is critical to the distribution of fuel by triple road trains from Geraldton Port and Main Roads will continue to work with stakeholders with a view to resolving the issues here,” a spokesman said. “The vegetation on North West Coastal Highway was trimmed to improve line of sight on April 21, 2020, by the City as it is part of the median island works covered by the Verge Maintenance Agreement between the City and Main Roads for landscaping and road verge maintenance in Geraldton. “Main Roads had not received any enquiries regarding the median island vegetation prior to the gopher incident which was on April 5, 2020.”