By Casey Neill
Lights are on their way to a dangerous Dandenong intersection.
On Monday 7 November, Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams announced $1.7 million from the Revitalising Central Dandenong project would fund signals at Princes Highway and Robinson Street.
City of Greater Dandenong has contributed $500,000 to the project.
Ms Williams said the project would include a fully controlled right turn into Robinson Street from Princes Highway, plus signalised pedestrian crossings across Robinson Street and Princes Highway.
There were 12 crashes, including four involving serious injuries, at the junction in the five years to 31 December last year.
More than 35,000 vehicles travel through the intersection daily, making it one of the busiest in the region.
“We know this intersection is dangerous – that’s why we’re getting on with these important works to fix it,” Ms Williams said.
“By adding new traffic lights and pedestrian crossings to this notorious intersection, we’ll reduce congestion on our roads and make them safer for local residents.”
The Journal reported on 17 June that cash was the only thing holding back the lights.
Greater Dandenong Council’s business group manager Paul Kearsley told the 14 June council meeting that he’d recently met with the VicRoads’ regional director.
“While there was no funding available in the state budget recently, they are very confident that the project can proceed,” he said.
Mr Kearsley later told the Journal that as central Dandenong continued to be redeveloped the intersection would become more heavily used.
“Signalising this intersection will result in improved motorist and pedestrian safety and will improve access to Dandenong’s central business district,” he said.
Tim Dionyssopoulos, a road trauma lawyer at Maurice Blackburn in Dandenong, told the Journal in September 2013 that the site would “claim more victims” unless VicRoads rectified driver confusion.
He said the lights there were pedestrian signals with a timing anomaly that meant people turning right into Robinson Street from the highway wrongly assumed oncoming traffic had a red light.
He also said drivers exiting Robinson Street saw traffic on the other side of the highway stopped at a red light and often incorrectly assumed oncoming traffic on the Robinson Street side was too.
Mr Dionyssopoulos welcomed the June update “as a driver in the area, as well as a pedestrian, as well as seeing the impact on the people who’ve been involved in accidents there”.
