The safety of users is this lobby’s primary concern.
The Victoria Bridge is an important part of Penrith’s infrastructure. The closest alternative crossings of the Nepean River are the M4 motorway 3.5km to the south, and Yarramundi bridge 18km to the north.
The community has grown dramatically and more is being asked of the bridge than was ever envisaged in its construction 120 years earlier.
Two lanes of vehicular traffic plus pedestrians and cyclists in two directions is just too much activity to safely squeeze into the confines of the bridge’s high steel walls. There is just no margin for error. But errors on the road will happen – its inevitable.
The problem with the bridge is that not only is it claustrophobically narrow for the amount of activity it carries and thereby increasing the risk that an accident will happen, but when a major incident does eventually occur there’s just nowhere for pedestrians and cyclists to hide. Traffic one side, steel walls the other.
Construction of a separate pedestrian and cycle way would not just eliminate the risk of serious injury and death to pedestrians and motorists, but would allow the widening of the traffic lanes and so also improve safety for motorists.
