Would you like better road access to the village? Buried in my last article was MP Turner’s 2005 “imperative” demanding that the Cove needed safe access to the highway and secondary access to Karuah and Tea Gardens. His imperative was ignored. Why?
In January this year, I sent two requests to Transport for NSW. Both related to the first right hand turn off the highway into Gooreengi Road. In the first, I asked for the median area grass to the north of the turn to be mowed as it was very high, even right up the very edge of the right lane heading south. It reduced vision of oncoming traffic, particularly from a sedan. I had success on that point. The long grass was mowed!
My second request was less successful. It concerned the turn right lane itself. The lane itself is 200 metres long. The NSW guidelines recommend 230 to 280 metres for a turn right lane off an 110 kph highway. That includes the taper length, plus sections for deceleration and queuing. Presumably, the short length after you’ve turned right, waiting for a gap in the southbound traffic, was counted as the queuing area to give the extra 30 metres. My view is that this turn right lane is too short. What do you think?
There are no current plans or commitments to provide an overpass at this location and no other current funded or committed projects in this area. … While the Hunter Strategic Integrated Transport Plan | Transport for NSW has been completed, you can continue to provide feedback on the priorities for the region, please visit: Sritp Map | Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plans | Have Your Say.
Access to Tea Gardens from Gooreengi Road, during peak holiday seasons, can, at times, be a challenge. Karuah access is a little better. The path of the old road to Karuah was already there. Why wasn't it used? I searched online to find reasons why John Turner’s “imperative” was ignored.
The reasons I found for RTA (Roads and Traffic Authority) ultimately refusing to link Gooreengi Road and Tarean Road to create a local, off-highway connection were along these lines:
- RTA Dumping: Apparently, during the construction of the Karuah-to-Bulahdelah upgrade, the RTA used the sections of the old highway between Gooreengi Road and Tarean Road to store their construction waste. Parts of their old asphalt, dirt, rock, and topsoil were covered and then revegetated, supposedly to return the area to nature! To give us access, RTA would have had to excavate their own construction fill!
- Removal of the road reserve: The land of the old highway in that area was carved up. Some was absorbed into adjoining private properties. Other bits were re-zoned as conservation/forestry boundaries. The area was blocked with "permanent gates" intended to prevent illegal dumping, trail-riding, and hooning. And we know what happens to those gates!
- A "No Parallel Local Road" Policy: RTA apparently had a policy during the 1990s and 2000s Pacific Highway upgrade that, unless absolutely necessary for property access, there were to be no parallel local road network alongside the new dual-carriageway! Regional and semi-local traffic was being pushed onto the high-speed highway to justify the infrastructure spend and simplify traffic management. (I would have thought having alternate local roads available was an advantage, particularly when road accidents or fires closing the main highway. In England they kept their "A" roads and most "B" roads when they built "M" highways.)
- A reluctant Council: If the Gooreengi-Tarean link was open as a public local road, the state government would have handed the maintenance liability over to Council. Apparently Council was unwilling to take on the responsibility for maintaining the former-highway asphalt for "a very small number of local users".
If these really do represent RTA's justification for denying us a separate access, what do you think? Were NAC and Carrington dudded? Does anyone have better information than I could find online? Let us know here what you think. Let Transport for NSW know.
"All care and no…
"All care and no responsibility" used to be a common saying. It meant a person or business would try their best to look after your property or well-being, but they refused to accept any blame or pay for damages if things go wrong. Not a complimentary term.
But profits, bonuses and promotions these days are not, it seems, based on care and responsibility. Profits, bonuses and promotions are about ignoring problems and public need, about denying responsibility for everything, about refusing to apologise, about not admitting fault and about pointing the finger of blame at someone else.
Congratulations and thanks to you Doug for getting the grass cut! And I emphatically endorse your views that the right-hand turn-off should be extended. If you're not doing 110 in the r/h lane, you're a danger to yourself and everyone else.
There has been the odd occasion when I have entered the highway from Tarean but have been unable to cross to the r/h lane because of sheer density of traffic compounded by nose-to-tail B-doubles in the r/h lane. My only recourse has been to pull up at the l/h quarry exit and wait.
But, sadly, argue as we might, the chances of any government authority acknowledging the problem and taking responsibility to fix it seem unlikely. Ditto the burn-outs, ditto compliance management, ditto, ditto, ditto.
TH
(PS. Some time ago, an NAC resident cyclist was hit by a car towing a caravan as he crossed the highway to enter the right turn lane on his return from Karuah. (Not the caravan owner’s fault). This resident is now permanently brain damaged and institutionalised.
Later the MCC invited ratepayers to suggest new projects to encourage cycling and I proposed rejoining Gooringee Road to Tarean Road using the old highway. This would encourage active residents to get on bikes by providing a safe passage to and from Karuah by avoiding the highway. The route is already partly paved, requiring only about 500m of narrow track to join the roads. No interest, no response.)