Geurie residents won’t lose their crossing after the residents fought for it to stay.
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Last month, Roads and Maritime Services were planning to remove the pedestrian crossing.
“The existing pedestrian crossing is currently exposing pedestrians to the high traffic volumes which use the Mitchell Highway and is a significant safety risk for the community,” an RMS spokesperson said at the time.
However, the residents were against the idea. More than 100 people turned up to the RMS’ drop-in information session calling for the zebra crossing to stay.
Resident Chris Newberry said the consultation had shown the RMS how much the town wanted the crossing.
Instead of getting rid of the crossing, Mr Newberry said the RMS was now proposing to making the crossing more visible by removing overhanging trees.
A review would also be done of the speed limit through town to see if it should be reduced from 50 kilometres per hour, Mr Newberry said, and double lines would be introduced to prevent overtaking.
“I can’t believe they actually listened to us. It’s great. It shows what people can do when they get together. There’s not many of us in Geurie but we got together and made a difference,” he said.
Traffic lights for the crossing have been ruled out. Mr Newberry said the RMS wouldn’t install the $300,000 lights because the crossing didn’t have enough foot traffic to meet the minimum requirements.
RMS didn’t confirm if there would be a speed limit reduction going into Geurie or double lines on the Mitchell Highway when contacted by the Daily Liberal.
However, a spokesperson said RMS had listened to the community and had redesigned plans for the upgrade of the Mitchell Highway pedestrian facility to keep the zebra crossing.
The revised design plans will be available for the community to provide feedback on at another drop-in session on July 26 at the Geurie General Store. The plans will also be on display at the Dubbo Regional Council buildings in Dubbo and Wellington.
Feeback on the updated design plans can be given until August 3.
The RMS said any comments received would be considered to help finalise the design before the work started. The community would continue to be updated as the project progresses, RMS said.