Sites for future traffic lights: Markwell Street in Kingaroy and Drayton Street, Nanango

August 15, 2012

Two dangerous intersections in Nanango and Kingaroy will get traffic lights installed if applications for “Blackspot” road funding are successful.

At its monthly meeting today, the South Burnett Regional Council agreed to a recommendation from Council officers to apply to the Department of Transport and Main Roads for the intersections of Drayton Street and the Burnett Highway in Nanango, and Markwell Street and the D’Aguilar Highway in Kingaroy, to be included in the 2012-13 Blackspot Program.

Council was told there have been increasing numbers of accidents and “near misses” at both intersections and as traffic volumes increase in future, the number of accidents would also rise proportionally unless action was taken.

When asked if both intersections met Blackspot funding criteria, SBRC General Manager Infrastructure John Kersnovski said that while he believed the Drayton Street intersection did, the Markwell Street intersection may fall slightly below the cut-off line at present.

However, he was confident the Council would be able to obtain support from police to enable funding to be secured.

Cr Barry Green said that as far as he was concerned, if the matter came down to a choice between one intersection or the other, he wanted the Drayton Street intersection to have priority.

“I’m on the record as saying I never wanted to see traffic lights in Nanango,” Cr Green said.

But he had been forced to change his view as the number of accidents and near misses at the Drayton Street intersection continued to rise.

“Frankly,” he said, “I now don’t see any other way that this intersection can be made safe except to install traffic lights.”

Cr Cheryl Dalton said she was pleased to see Cr Green’s views on traffic lights had changed, and the proposal was passed unopposed.