Renewed call for safer highway crossing at Springwood
For 14 long years a group of Springwood residents has campaigned for a safer crossing over the highway between north Springwood and the train station.
Renewed call for safer highway crossing at Springwood
Alan and Pat Ainslie are part of a group of Springwood residents calling for a safer highway crossing near Boland Avenue, linking north Springwood to the train station.
Alan and Pat Ainslie are part of a group of Springwood residents calling for a safer highway crossing near Boland Avenue, linking north Springwood to the train station.
Before the pedestrian refuge barrier was replaced.
They say pedestrians take their lives in their hands crossing the busy four lanes with only a small refuge to protect them from the streams of traffic.
For years the group have called for a pedestrian overpass near Boland Avenue, much like at Blaxland and most recently, Bullaburra.
But they've recently resigned themselves to the fact that's unlikely to happen and are now focused on pedestrian activated traffic lights, or a 60km/hr speed limit and a steel barrier around the pedestrian refuge.
"Every other station in the Mountains has a safe crossing, and this [Springwood] is a well used station," said Springwood resident Pat Ainslie.
"Elderly people use this and young families with prams."
Her husband Alan, says he's witnessed too many close calls.
"I've seen whole families standing in the middle [of the highway] and nearly getting bowled over," Mr Ainslie said.
"We don't want a fatality here and then saying I should have done something."
They say it's too far for the elderly in particular, to walk further west to the traffic lights on Ferguson Rd and then into town to access the train station.
"Who's going to walk all the way around when the station is just across the road," Mrs Ainslie said.
The barrier around the current pedestrian refuge was knocked over two months ago, and was only just replaced earlier this month, after the residents contacted Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle, who raised the issue with the Roads and Maritime Services contractor.
Ms Doyle said she was "open-minded to all of the possible options to make life easier for people living along the northern side of the highway at Springwood".
She said an on-call crossing with traffic lights may work, such as those at Linden station and the Woodford Academy, but this would need to be assessed by road engineers in the context of the nearby traffic lights.
She ruled out a pedestrian overpass.
“Road engineers have informed me that unfortunately the greatest impediment to an overpass at this location is a lack of space alongside the roadway and between the highway and the railway corridor for accessible ramps up and down from a pedestrian footbridge," she said.
"This leaves a road level crossing at this location as the only practical option without compulsorily acquiring homes and demolishing them to make space for the footings of a new bridge.”
Blue Mountains Liberal candidate Owen Laffin said all the residents proposals sounded like sensible suggestions.
A Roads and Maritime Services spokeswoman said they had investigated pedestrian safety at the existing pedestrian refuge.
"Roads and Maritime will install additional pedestrian warning signs and trim roadside vegetation on approach to the refuge to enhance safety and improve driver awareness of pedestrians," the spokeswoman said.
"Work is underway to investigate options to improve lighting at this location and the community will be kept informed as investigations progress."