ONE of the busiest and most notorious intersections in Orange will receive one of two roundabouts slated for the city in a $1.25 million road upgrade blitz commissioned by the state government.
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Orange mayor Reg Kidd on Friday heralded the news of $600,000 for a roundabout at the intersection of Hill Street and Matthews Avenue as a win for Orange’s motorists.
A further $650,000 will go towards a roundabout at the intersection of McLachlan and March streets.
The funding comes as a result of 10 crashes that resulted in injury or cars having to be towed at the Hill Street and Matthews Avenue intersection being reported to NSW Centre of Road Safety in 10 years.
There were also five reported crashes, with four crashes involving injuries, at both intersections in the past five years.
If roundabouts are built properly and people use them properly it's the only way to move traffic around without a huge amount of interference.
- Mayor Reg Kidd
The reported crash figures did not include more minor prangs.
Mayor Reg Kidd said the sites for the two roundabouts were at "very busy intersections".
He said Hill Street was a busy road connecting the CBD to North Orange and the Northern Distributor while Matthews avenue was also a busy road.
"If roundabouts are built properly and people use them properly it's the only way to move traffic around without a huge amount of interference," Cr Kidd said.
"When you've got give way signs and stop signs it does interrupt traffic."
Cr Kidd also welcomed $470,000 state government funding for safety improvements at the intersection of Cargo Road and Lake Canobolas Road.
"I get lots of people ringing me up about that intersection there because of the amount of people who go out to the lake for various reasons or to the wineries," he said.
While the Hill Street roundabout would be a raised roundabout and would be either single lane or two lanes in and one lane out, the McLachlan Street roundabout would be a flat roundabout so large vehicles could drive over it.
Construction of the new roundabouts is scheduled for the next financial year.
In the meantime work will begin on a roundabout at the intersection of Woodward Street and Wentworth Lane on Monday.
Residents and businesses were notified two weeks ahead of the scheduled work and the $840,000 project with $695,000 funded by the NSW government Safer Roads program and the rest coming from Orange City Council.
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
