Roads and Maritime Services surveys upgrade to Wagga’s Sturt Highway near hospital that could reduce parking

The Roads and Maritime Services transport agency has launched an online survey on ‘Sturt Highway and Murray Street intersection safety improvements’.

The agency wants to “understand traffic and pedestrian movements” ahead of the hospital’s next stage of development and is collaborating with Wagga council and NSW Health.

“Roads and Maritime Services is investigating ways to improve safety for all road users, including improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists,” the survey page stated.

“Some options being investigated may require the removal of parking”.

One question in the survey asks respondents “to improve safety at this location would you consider using alternative streets to access Murray Street?” 

Murray Street resident Kerry Geale said something had to be done about the intersection due to the risk of collisions with turning vehicles and pedestrians attempting unsafe crossings.

However, Mr Geale said parking was already an issue as hospital staff and patients sought spaces in residential streets.

“If you look around the streets here, it’s all parking from the staff of the hospital, so it’s going to take out quite a few of their car parks.

“It’s a difficult one; I would have thought they would have done something in conjunction with the new car park at the hospital so there was sufficient parking around the place.

“It seems to me that the cart is going before the horse.”

Mr Geale said he would prefer Murray Street be closed to to the highway as it was safer to turn with the traffic lights at Docker Street.

He was also concerned that any option to add traffic lights and turning lanes at the highway at Murray Street would affect shops in the area through reduced customer parking.

Parking has been a long-standing issue around the hospital, with both staff and mobility impaired patients raising complaints about safety and being hit with fines of more than $100 for parking on nearby streets.

The state government has pledged to build a $30 million, 800-space multi-storey car park for the hospital.

“The Sturt Highway and Murray Street intersection has been identified for safety improvements under the State Black Spot Program,” the Roads and Maritime Services survey page stated.

“There is a history of crashes at this location with the majority of incidents involving turning vehicles and rear end crashes.”

The survey will be available online until October 19 at rms.social/SturtHwy.

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