By AIDAN KNIGHT AND BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
THERE’S still a long road ahead for the finalisation of the Bank Street-Princes Highway traffic lights.
Despite the Traralgon intersection undergoing a three-month reconstruction, which began last Monday (July 20), the lantern signals remain switched off, as the extensive roadworks will not concern the traffic lights’ completion.
Announced on July 15, Latrobe City Council advised that the section of Bank St between the highway and west of McNulty Drive will be closed in both directions, while crews carry out road reconstruction to fix ageing and damaged pavement and upgrade existing road assets.
For many in the community however, the sight of crews on the ground provides little comfort, ignoring a project which was first announced in 2018.
Latrobe City Jeeralang Ward councillor Joanne Campbell has been one of the most vocal in outcry.
“Happy to see this happen, but still no work on the lights, which is very important,”, she told the Express.
“Doing all these works, but where are the lights?”.
Cr Campbell added that the community continues to remain in the dark regarding a final timeline.
The push to improve the intersection has now stretched across much of the past decade.
While motorists have seen signal infrastructure standing at the site for years, the federal government says the current Bank St intersection upgrade was first funded in 2021, with the road infrastructure component completed in late 2022.
Despite the lights being “ready to go,” state government correspondence recently pushed the expected activation date back to at least 2027.
Cr Campbell said she was “disgusted” when council received a letter from the Federal Minister for Roads and Road Safety last May.
The letter read that the government would endeavour to activate the lights by late 2027.
While the roadworks are council-led, it comes from federal government funding, and is entirely separate from that of the traffic signal installation, currently managed instead by the Department of Transport and Planning.
As the three-month road reconstruction begins, the Department of Transport and Planning maintains responsibility for any updates regarding the signal project.
In the meantime, council signage will guide traffic through detours, but the overarching standoff between local safety needs and state-level delays appears no closer to a resolution, leaving residents with all roads and no green light.
The Express understands the Bank St-Princes highway traffic lights has become more complex following the completion of the Gippsland Line upgrade.
According to the federal government, the new traffic lights must be integrated with the upgraded rail signalling network and synchronised with the increased number of V/Line services now operating through Traralgon before they can be switched on.
A spokesperson for Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Local Government and Regional Development, Catherine King, said the Albanese government had continued to increase its financial commitment to the project in an effort to see it completed.
“The Albanese government is working to improve road safety in Traralgon and across Australia, which is why we have committed over $12 million to ensuring this intersection at the Princes Hwy East and Bank St is safe for the people who use it,” the spokesperson said.
“Our commitment includes an additional $5.8 million provided in the recent Federal Budget to finish the project.”
“This will address cost pressures arising from general escalation, higher track occupation costs and additional cable trenching works.
“While the road infrastructure components of this project were completed in late 2022, the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning are now working with V/Line on design works and to implement the signalling system.”
Federal funding for the intersection has grown significantly since it was first announced, increasing from an initial commitment of $4.82 million in 2021 to $6.42 million in the 2024-25 budget before rising again to $12.26 million in the 2026-27 Federal Budget.
The latest funding package forms part of the federal government’s $322.9 million investment in upgrades along the Princes Highway.
The Department of Transport and Planning is expected to provide further detail regarding the timeline for activation of the traffic lights.
The first day of delays was a task to tackle for those who had even planned extra time. A Drouin resident (wishing to remain anonymous) who works in Morwell, after dropping her partner off at work in Traralgon, spoke to the Express about their experience.
“We set up 20 minutes earlier to prepare for this, and it did nothing,” they said.
“I even took backroads through Moe and Tyers, but so did everyone else.”
Chair of RoadSafe Gippsland, Andy Milbourne, who has increasingly pushed for the traffic lights completion for as long as it’s been kicked down the road, was “utterly disappointed” when hearing that no lights would be installed as part of the upgrade.
“Just bewildered that they’re not going to do what they’ve said that they’re going to be doing for many years now,” he said.
“If something like this was done in Melbourne, it would have been fixed years ago.
“Is it going to take somebody to die before they actually decide to pull their finger out and do something about it?”
Mr Milbourne wasted no time in pointing the finger at Premier Jacinta Allan to prioritise the traffic lights and put the issue to bed.
“She’s pretty happy to get projects sorted out down in Melbourne, but when it comes to our poor country cousins, we just don’t seem to be a blip on the radar and it’s just disappointing,” he added.
Mr Milbourne successfully lobbied for the reduction of the speed limit along that strip of the highway down to 60km/h, but has been steadfast that road safety remains a massive issue until the traffic lights are turned on.
Now a retired police sergeant, Mr Milbourne recalled a fatality occurring at the Bank St level crossing where a car hit a train, which immediately saw action with the installation of boom gates.
It has long been said that patrons of the neighbouring Traralgon Golf Club, which is a part of the Bank St intersection, frequently cross the highway in golf carts to and from the residential lots on the other side.
Due to the lack of traffic lights, drivers regularly have to navigate carefully when crossing lanes on the highway, attempting to avoid oncoming vehicles.
Slips lanes exiting the highway onto Bank St are one of the only items that have been developed from the initial eight-year-old project announcement.
“We need these traffic lights there to make it safer for everyone,” Mr Milbourne stated.
Local state MP, Martin Cameron has highlighted that children are also forced to frequently cross the train tracks and walk down to the traffic lights at Kosciuszko St on their way to school.
As such, Mr Cameron has continued to press for the construction of an underpass from Bank St to Kosciuszko St.
Prior to the commencement of works on Monday, footpaths were already being developed on the north side of the highway from the Caltex service station past the funeral home through to the golf club.
Mr Cameron and Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester said they’ve repeatedly written to the relevant transport ministers at state and federal level, but have sensed no urgency from either Labor governments to complete the project.
“The reconstruction works on Bank St are a necessary investment to address ageing and damaging road pavement, and improve safety for motorists,” Mr Chester said.
“But these works will only add to the frustration of road users who have been waiting too long for the Bank St and Princes Highway intersection traffic lights to be installed.
“The Allan Labor government has received funding from the federal government to complete the Bank St intersection upgrade, but the project still hasn’t been fully delivered as the community waits for the promised traffic lights.
“This intersection has been a longstanding safety concern for the Traralgon community and has already been the scene of too many accidents.”
Mr Chester has long campaigned for a Traralgon bypass for the Princes Highway, which included a local petition of more than 1300 signatures earlier this year.
