A FOURTH report into the intersection of Lambert, Mitre and Suttor streets at West Bathurst has delivered the same recommendation as the previous three – the installation of a roundabout.
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Bathurst Regional Council has received a 20-page report from consultants Traffic Matters that considered the current operation and future requirements of the intersection near the Assumption School.
The consultants also considered the option of installing traffic lights at the intersection before ruling it out on the basis that “traffic signals are not warranted at this intersection and would not provide any significant benefit to the community with regard to traffic flow or intersection safety”.
But the report was not all good news for roundabout advocates as the authors also concluded that the intersection “would continue to operate satisfactorily” as a “sign controlled intersection” for the next 20 years.
“[However] average delay for vehicles through the intersection would be getting to the point where an upgrade to a roundabout or other intersection control would need to be considered,” the report states.
The report concludes that the installation of a single-lane roundabout would “ensure that the intersection operates with minimal delay and a good level of service well into the future”.
Council has already set aside $1.7 million to upgrade the intersection, pending this report’s findings.
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Councillor Alex Christian – who last month labelled a number of his colleagues “ditherers” for delaying a decision on the intersection – said the report should finally clear the way to begin work on a roundabout.
“The results are in and it’s very clear that a roundabout is the appropriate solution for this intersection,” Cr Christian said.
“This is now the fourth report and this is a report from an independent company who have come back and said a roundabout is the most appropriate traffic measure.
“I always had complete faith in council’s engineers but this is now a third party that vindicates what our own engineers have said.
“Cr [Warren] Aubin says the 5000 people who signed a petition calling for a roundabout were wrong but now we know they were right.”
In compiling the report, the consultants assumed traffic increases through the intersection of 1.3 per cent a year over the next two decades.
The consultants’ report will now go before a council working party.
