Port Augusta City Council will consider asking the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure to reinstate a red-light camera at the Highway One, Caroona Road and Burgoyne Street intersection.
It will also consider asking DTEI to install 40km/h road train speed limit reminder signs and ask police to monitor road train speeds, and it may start “pre-feasibility investigations” into a shorter bypass route to replace the Yorkeys Crossing oversize vehicle route.
A report to the council’s corporate services and infrastructure committee on Monday evening, in response to a letter to the council from road safety campaigner Anne Kroes, stated that originally all three major intersections with Highway One – Carlton Parade, Flinders Terrace and Caroona Road – were equipped with red-light cameras by DTEI.
The council’s infrastructure and environment director, Hayden Hart, said in the report that the Caroona Road camera operated from December 1994 to 2002 but was removed in 2003 “due to ongoing issues relating to constant damage and camera malfunctions”.
In the past 18 months the remaining cameras have recorded 652 vehicles running red lights, Mr Hart said, and of those only 36 were trucks and possibly only two were B-doubles or road trains.
“Given the low frequency of offending at the other two intersections, indications are that the reinstatement of the camera at Caroona Road is unlikely in the immediate future,” he said.
“However, if the community is aware of an increasing number of near misses and instances of running red lights at this intersection the issue of reinstatement of the camera should be raised again with DTEI.”
In his report Mr Hart stated that the speed limit through Port Augusta for road trains was 40km/h but from his “personal observations a proportion of the road trains operate at speeds exceeding 40km/h”.
He recommended that the council ask DTEI to install reminder speed limit signs for road train drivers at either end of Port Augusta and ask police to monitor road train speeds on Highway.
The committee also recommended council investigate short and long-term options for keeping the highway corridor through the city after Cr Peter Solomon expressed concern at the economic impact a bypass could have.
Mr Hart said that on June 9 Transport Minister Pat Conlon’s office advised the council that the estimated cost of sealing the Yorkeys Crossing oversize vehicle route was $40 million but the works had a very low “benefit-cost ratio”.
The council’s recently adopted structure plan identifies the need to upgrade and seal Yorkeys Crossing to meet future needs but this is not projected until at least 2026, he said.
However, the structure plan also identified a possible much shorter deviation from the Footner Road connection with Highway One and rejoining the Stuart Highway much closer to Port Augusta.
An average of 130 B-doubles and 220 road trains a day pass through Port Augusta, Mr Hart said in the report. In the past five years 37 crashes involving commercial vehicles have been reported. Of these, only four involved B-doubles or road trains and of the four, two were caused by cars, he said.
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