A Sebastopol intersection is being upgraded to feature a new safety-boosting design, which will incorporate a raised safety platform, new traffic lights, safer pedestrian crossing points and dedicated turn lanes.
The works to upgrade the Ballarat intersection of Hertford and Albert streets is part of a Victorian Government investment.
Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Ben Carroll, said, “This new raised safety platform will be the first of its kind in Ballarat, bringing tactics normally reserved for metropolitan roads to this ever-growing region.
“The upgrade will improve pedestrian safety by slowing vehicles down on the approach to the Hertford and Albert Street intersection.”
Meant to overhaul some of Ballarat’s most notorious traffic chokepoints, the intersection is currently used by 35,000 vehicles per day – a figure expected to increase by 20 per cent by 2041.
Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison, said, “More cars are travelling on Ballarat roads than ever before, and more demand means a need for improved infrastructure, which is why we are enhancing safety at the area’s busiest intersections.”
Raised safety platforms are elevated sections of road designed to reduce vehicle speeds as they approach and travel through high-risk areas.
The platforms are similar to speed humps but involve raising an entire intersection at the entrance and departure points through a gentle increase in gradient to ensure vehicles maintain a safe speed until they have passed through.
New designs released by Regional Roads Victoria show that the entire centre of the intersection with traffic lights will be raised, ensuring that drivers enter and exit at a safer speed. Construction on the platform is expected to begin later in 2022.
These safety platforms have been installed at busy intersections in Melbourne to improve safety, including in Epping and Thomastown, while a platform has also been installed at an intersection in Belmont, near Geelong.
The works are part of the $60.8 million Keeping Ballarat Moving package – a major investment in easing congestion and boosting safety at some of Ballarat’s most notorious traffic hotspots.
