Have your say here, and don’t forget to vote
The Victoria Bridge at Penrith is a death trap for pedestrians and cyclists.
Pedestrians - Boxed in for 250 metres with no protection and nowhere to go
The 250 metre long steel sided carriageway contains two lanes of traffic plus a single footpath 1.3 metres wide to be shared by pedestrians and cyclists for traffic both east and west. The bridge is so narrow that there is insufficient room for a guardrail to protect pedestrians from the traffic – just a 100mm kerb. It would take just a nudge from a truck or car, or the loss of concentration of a driver for just a moment for a car or truck to mount the kerb and careen into any pedestrians or cyclists unfortunate enough to be on the bridge at that time.
Once on the bridge, and bound by traffic and the steel walls, even if the hapless pedestrian saw the incident happening, they’d have nowhere to go. It’s just a matter of time for an incident like this to occur with tragic consequences.
This web site is the focal point of a lobby for the construction of a dedicated safe crossing of the Nepean River at Victoria Bridge, Penrith. Through this web site the lobby aims to:
- raise awareness of the safety hazard to users of the bridge
- provide a forum for users of the bridge to give their views and register their support for change
- demonstrate to politicians the community support for construction of a safe pedestrian and cycle crossing of the Nepean River at Victoria Bridge.
The lobby does not specify the precise answer to this safety and community amenity problem – that’s for the planners and engineers. We do though suggest that an additional carriage way upstream of and supported from or adjacent to the Victoria Bridge would solve the problem with great benefit to all users of the bridge and to the Penrith valley community.
The lobby acknowledges the heritage value of the bridge but does not consider heritage to mean accepting permanently a grossly unsafe piece of community infrastructure.
The challenge is to generate the political will to fix this glaring safety and community amenity problem.
Add your voice to the lobby for a safe crossing of the Nepean River.
This web site is administered by Brendan Mullins and Joseph Grassi. We welcome your views and support.
