DETAILS of Colac’s three potential bypass routes could be ready within weeks.
New bypass routes for Colac
Three proposed routes for a truck bypass of Colac's business district. Click for a closer look.
5 Responses to “New bypass routes for Colac”
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LOL… this paper printed a story last year by Mr Meade, followed by another story by another bloke ( I forget name, sorry) to which was exactly what i at the age of 15(20yr ago) said to people about the bypass idea going across the lake and that it would cost a fortune! Now I could see that, without any qualifications, so why can’t others???
Now if ya want to run heavy vehicles up back street, those streets would need to be rebuilt, they won’t handle the constat heavy traffic.
My solution is- slow the speed limit from Church to McClennan st permanent 50, lights at Armstrong and drop Armstrong to Queen st to 40k from 8am-6pm. Also maybe look at asking truck companys from outside Colac to use Hamilton Hwy in hours above.
But at the end of it, i also sad years ago and for laughed at for it “rail is the future of frieght”, now what’s Mr Fox been saying. There’s a few out there that can eat their words! LoL
Also, if ya look at the Wilson st idea it goes right through houses and vacant blocks in Imperial drv! Did they just use Google maps to survey the idea??? If anything they could buy a corridor of land to the north of the lake and build a road on that.
How about we go with – no bypass at all?
Two of the three alternatives send the trucks past schools, and the Wilson st alternative takes it over the Wilson/Gravesend street intersection. Dangerous to have that many trucks crossing it as it is now, and a total redesign of the intersection needed to make it safe – certainly not a cheap option. It also gets far too many log trucks on it now. They should be barred from going past the Specialist school.
Quite apart from the people who are stuck with high traffic in an area that didn’t have it when they purchased their houses.
Murray St is the main street of Colac, it is the street that should take the brunt of the traffic. All home-owners and shop-keepers moved into that street knowing the traffic load, and if they don’t like it now, too bad.
Stop wasting money on this, and find a better use for that money – like helping the hospital keep the urgent care ward open!
Can’t believe anyone in their right mind would consider a road over any part of Lake Colac. While the lake has been affected by drought in recent years it is one of Colac’s best assets. If it went ahead here, the serenity of this part of Colac would be ruined forever!
Depends on where it crosses the lake, what buffer zones are created etc. The line on the map shown is terrible, but if it were another kilometre or more out it changes. If you draw a gentle curve across from Ross’s Point in the West, to North of the railway crossing on the Beacc Road to the West, you end up with an inner Lake two or three times the size of Bullen Merri. (north south would be the same as Bullen Merri, but east west almost three times).
Then you can look at having a wide vegetated buffer on the bypass, using silt pumped from the Lake Colac South. Add a walking/bicycle path around this new inner Lake, and with the increased depth, improved time to restoration after drought etc, you’ve massively improved the recreational facilities of the lake.
The split lake would be more manageable, and nutrient flushing and water polishing combined would help eventually restore an area that has sadly been neglected and used as a dumping ground. If, for example, on the eastern end of the lake you were to build a shallow wetlands, and divert the treated sewage effluent via it, the water quality in the lake should improve as well as providing more stable environment for the bird life.
A well planned integrated plan for the lake could evolve around putting the bypass there. The green line on the map as Colac herald showed doesn’t even com close to that. But a bypass over the lake could actually be what we need to fix the lake.
We’d need to see geologist estimates as to the feasibility of it, but a bypass over the lake is far preferable to running a bypass through residential areas, schools and homes.