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NSW Government. Transport. Roads & Maritime Services	Road Projects

Great Western Highway Upgrade

Program Information

Projects

Great Western Highway at Ross Street, Glenbrook

Left Only and No Right Turn signs on Ross Street

The intersection of Ross Street with the Great Western Highway at Glenbrook has a history of serious crashes, including one fatality, associated with the right turn movement from Ross Street.

In September 2010, Roads and Maritime Services invited comments from the Glenbrook community and key stakeholders regarding a proposal to address the road safety issue by installing a 'No Right Turn' for northbound motorists on Ross Street at the Great Western Highway, Glenbrook. To view letter to the householder go to the project documents page.

Roads and Maritime Services engaged an independent consultant, Integrated Analysis Pty Ltd, to document community discussion and feedback. An issues report and a report of the community meeting held on Saturday 16 April, 2011 are available from the project documents page.

A number of participants at the community meeting enquired about what was included in the "warrant" evaluation criteria for the installation of traffic lights. View or download more information on the assessment criteria.

Roads and Maritime Services acknowledges the local community's preference for traffic lights on the highway at Ross Street. This option required further design work, traffic modelling and cost estimates.

Becasue our immediate priority and obligation was to reduce crashes and improve safety at the Great Western Highway/Ross Street intersection, we introduced the right turn restriction, with two provisos:

To carry out traffic surveys and intersection monitoring before and after our work to measure any changes to local traffic flow for the purpose of reporting back to the community.
To fund the design work to determine the feasibility and costs associated with installing new traffic lights at Ross Street and/or intersection improvements at Hare/Mann/Wascoe streets.

Results of post-implementation traffic surveys

Traffic surveys before and after the right turn ban implementation show no noticeable difference to local traffic flow with no cause and effect impact on the surrounding intersections. This data can be provided on request.

Feasibility investigations into installing traffic lights at Ross Street intersection with GWH

We developed a strategic concept plan to establish a cost estimate for installing traffic lights on the highway at Ross Street. Two alignment options were identified as potentially the most feasible:

Both options require removing access to the highway from Mann Street south to manage the impact on highway traffic flow.

Predictions from traffic modelling indicate that installing traffic lights on the highway at Ross Street would result in an increase in the average delay during the evening peak and a minor improvement to the average delay during the morning peak.

The predicted lack of improvement to traffic efficiency resulting from installing traffic lights would not satisfy any funding criteria under current traffic or road safety programs for the provision of traffic lights. The cost of providing traffic lights at Ross Street and the works associated with closing Mann Street south are estimated at $5 million.

Improving Hare/Mann/Wascoe streets intersection

Many of the comments received during the consultation related to the operation of the Hare/Mann/Wascoe streets intersection. While the configuration of this intersection is not ideal, traffic surveys have confirmed:

All vehicles at this intersection are generally able to clear in one cycle of the lights.
The new right turn restriction on Ross Street at the highway has not changed the operation of the nearby intersections.

In view of community concern we continue to work with Blue Mountains City Council to improve traffic movements and safety at the Hare/Mann/Wascoe streets intersection. We have reviewed a number of options developed by Council. Two of these options could potentially improve the intersection:

Option 1 involves removing north-south and east-west movements through the intersection. This would be achieved by installing a physical separation linking Wascoe Street east with Mann Street north and Wascoe Street west with Mann Street south.
Option 2 involves removing all connectivity with Mann Street by closing Mann Street at Wascoe Street and providing a cul-de-sac in Mann Street.

Both of these options would help the intersection to operate more efficiently by re-directing traffic around the local road area. We will continue to provide Council with technical support throughout the option development process.

We have listened to community ideas and have investigated the option of installing traffic lights on the highway at Ross Street. We appreciate the input of everyone who participated in this consultation. The results show that we have no technical basis to propose traffic lights as it does not satisfy our evaluation criteria for funding.