The car, centre, trying to move on to the South Gippsland Highway from Sybella Avenue, Kooweerup, needs a slip lane alongside the left running lane of the highway to enable it to merge safely. With the prevailing situation the car is placed at an acute angle that creates enormous difficulty for drivers to see properly and to judge a manoeuvre.SIX months before the Pakenham Bypass was opened I began a system of counting traffic numbers on the Kooweerup-Pakenham Road.
Three months after the freeway’s opening the same method of counting resulted in less traffic and I was surprised.
But that wasn’t to last.
During the two months before Christmas and to the last week of the year the count has more than doubled.
Traffic build-ups occur in Kooweerup township from the intersection of Station Street and Rossiter Road and again at the intersection of Sybella Avenue and the South Gippsland Highway.
I have seen traffic backed up from the highway to the outskirts of Kooweerup.
Gridlocks in the town are one thing but the block at the highway intersection with Sybella Avenue was caused because of bad intersection design.
This intersection once had a slip lane of sorts for traffic turning left toward Lang Lang.
But VicRoads created a T-intersection, with a slight angle, which means every car must in most cases stop for the driver to look back from an over-awkward angle.
Besides slowing the movement of traffic on to the highway the treatment given this intersection has created a certain death trap.
Some trucks pull across the white line while making the turn and this can be unexpected by drivers travelling at 100km/h and often higher speeds.
Drivers are forced to take off from Sybella Avenue from a standing start on to a high-speed road.
Had VicRoads provided a decent slip lane drivers could be up to highway speed before they moved into the main flow.
Most drivers move to the right lane to let merging traffic in.
This intersection design is a major disaster that has already caused impatience and anger with at least two drivers I spotted.
More confusion was created at the intersection during the Christmas break because some drivers were hesitant to pull out even when the way was clear.
Even when a vehicle moved to the right lane they would wait until it passed rather than go out and use the left lane.
When they wait more cars come along and the situation is exacerbated to create longer delays.
People in four-wheel-drives were moving to the left of the traffic line to go off road at both Sybella Avenue and Rossiter Road intersections and then on to the highway.
This is a dangerous practice because it creates surprise for drivers travelling at high speed on the highway and watching the intersection.
High conflict has been created at the Sybella Avenue intersection with the South Gippsland Highway and this should be remedied before a death occurs or people are badly injured.
