DANGER ZONE: Whitton resident Mark Player says the road between Yoogali and Widgelli has been unsafe for far too long.
COUNCIL will finally repair a “dangerous” stretch of road between Yoogali and Widgelli that forces drivers to swerve violently to avoid a collision with oncoming traffic.
When the flood-damaged section of Irrigation Way was resealed in August, the channel alongside it had leaked, making it impossible to seal to the edge in some parts.
As a result, the road “bowed in” for just over a kilometre, making one lane two inches narrower than it should be.
Without any lines painted on the road, the narrowing was not obvious, causing traffic to swerve at the last minute to stay on the road.
Council has been awaiting permission from the RMS (formerly RTA) to complete the sealing and line marking on the state government-owned road and finally received it last week.
Whitton resident Mark Player, who uses Irrigation Way twice a day to travel to and from work in Griffith, said the process had been drawn out for far too long.
“There are local people doing the repairs, who knew what condition it was in – I don’t understand why the RMS didn’t give approval as soon as the road dried out and was ready to be fixed,” Mr Player said.
“You come along the road and you’ve suddenly got to jump a metre to the right, then you’ve got to jump a metre to the left a kilometre down the road.
“We get semi-trailers out there at times and it can be pretty hairy when they’re suddenly heading straight for you because the road has narrowed.”
Work will begin to seal the remaining two inches of roadway this week.
The project will include drainage works and linemarking and is expected to be completed by Easter.
Council infrastructure and operations director Dallas Bibby said the completed road would be much better than it was before the 2012 floods.
“The channel side of Irrigation Way in that spot was always rough, which meant most people deviated in when they were driving along anyway,” Mr Bibby said.
“It was a real pain morning and night because the road runs east-west so, particularly at dusk, visibility is shocking.
“Now that section will be done properly; it will be smooth and safe and we’ll be able to put the speed limit back to 100 kilometres an hour.”
The speed has been set at 60km/h since August.