Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
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Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Hergest » Sat Mar 08, 2014 5:34 pm
In a monumental piece of bad design Parramatta council have put a fence slap bang in the middle of the shared path that runs along Railway Terrace between Guildford and Merrylands railway stations. They have redesigned the crossing next to the footbridge that serves the school on York Street on the Holroyd side of the railway line. A fence is needed to stop the kids running down the bridge and into traffic but it should be on the pavement edge. There is no warning apart from a witches hat placed in front of the posts. The fence is a nice dark green with 50mm wide posts, bolted into the ground and just perfect to give you some nasty damage when you hit it. Worst of all is if you come up from Merrylands direction an existing telegraph pole close to the kerb forces you to deviate slightly and sends you almost slap bang into the new fence. I'm hoping some clot of a fencer mis-read a drawing but i fear that the layout is as planned. Someone will come a cropper for sure especially in the dark as it will be impossible to see the fence.
This is the spot if this works..
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby g-boaf » Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:55 pm
Might as well just use the road instead.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:22 pm
But yes, that fence is an abomination. Haven't had a really good look at it, but it looks really scrappy, just plonked down, almost as if it might temporary -- they haven't finished the works yet, so here's hoping.
At least it's at the crest of a hill so unless you're a superhero type you won't be approaching it at enormous speed.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:38 pm
And as boafy says, it's already narrow and there's no real scope for widening either.
Oh well, parra council will just have to work something out after they're sued by an injured cyclist.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:14 am
Here's what confronts you approaching from Guildford toward merrylands;
You can see the remnants of the old crossing to the right of frame. Had they left it there, the fence could've been right up against the road. Maybe they were worried about the driveway at top-right;
This is the view from the Merrylands end with the frightful telegraph pole Hergey mentions;
The age old practice of using a helmet to indicate scale shows just how narrow it is, add a thousand snotty brats cascading off the bridge when school is out and it'll be bedlam;
This guy was making like he was waving to a fellow cyclist, but I suspect he was really hiding his face. He's obviously up to no good. He's heading south toward Guildford. Keep an eye out for him, comrades;
The fact they have the illuminated plastic bollards and witches hats at the fence's sharp edge suggests the danger has been recognised, but those are just temporary construction safety stuff so it'll be interesting to see if they leave it without safety measures when they pack up and leave.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby QuangVuong » Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:55 am
At least its in a flat section, where you wouldn't be travelling too fast. However, they could've made the two end posts more visible.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Hergest » Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:13 pm
That telegraph pole doesn't look particularly hazardous in the photo but if you're coming up from Merrylands at a normal 30kmh it you certainly feel the urge to move away from it towards the new fence.
Thanks for the photos Mr Tar, that cyclist hiding his face is probably from Channel 7, an undercover journo seeking out cyclists riding at 30 kmh by a school. I bet he's out of puff due to the 0.5% incline.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Mulger bill » Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:26 pm
London Boy 29/12/2011
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby isabella24 » Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:43 pm
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby tez001 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:29 am
It would be under Holroyd Council.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:39 am
Hergest wrote:
That telegraph pole doesn't look particularly hazardous in the photo but if you're coming up from Merrylands at a normal 30kmh it you certainly feel the urge to move away from it towards the new fence.
.
I allowed my artistic instincts to overrun my documentary duty -- the train became the most important thing in that photo. The first pic gives a pretty good indication of the danger though. If you trace the path straight down the middle of that lane, you can imagine you'd be clipping the fence at the near end, and that's without veering around the pole.
Had another chat with the lollipop guy this morning (he's actually an RTA employee, not volunteer as I said earlier) and he too was surprised the fence wasn't up against the road, but he also complained about bikes "racing" through there when the kiddies are about, so phooey to him.
The only other thing I can report is that someone seems to have made off with the flashing lights that were on the bollards.
Even though Holroyd council chambers are only a few hundred metres from that spot, it's Parra council. The railway line is the border, I believe.tez001 wrote:
It would be under Holroyd Council.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby QuangVuong » Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:54 am
If it were up against the road, how will people access the crossing? Same if it were up against the bridge, then how will people exit the bridge.TTar wrote:
Had another chat with the lollipop guy this morning (he's actually an RTA employee, not volunteer as I said earlier) and he too was surprised the fence wasn't up against the road, but he also complained about bikes "racing" through there when the kiddies are about, so phooey to him.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:20 am
QuangVuong wrote:If it were up against the road, how will people access the crossing? Same if it were up against the bridge, then how will people exit the bridge.TTar wrote:
Had another chat with the lollipop guy this morning (he's actually an RTA employee, not volunteer as I said earlier) and he too was surprised the fence wasn't up against the road, but he also complained about bikes "racing" through there when the kiddies are about, so phooey to him.
It should've been taken into account long ago. What they've done is immeasurably stupid. The only solution I can see is to modify the bridge so the stairs exit further to the left or right. Big bucks and knotty work. Even for pedestrians it's awkward to negotiate, as it is.
It would be a good place to lock your bike up, though.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby tubby74 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:56 pm
clearly that's the issue you have now but any sensible design would have installed the raised crossing 5 metres either side of the bridge exit so you could have a fence that stopped people running from stairs to road, but still able to access the crossing. not a lot of thought put into the design so farQuangVuong wrote: If it were up against the road, how will people access the crossing? Same if it were up against the bridge, then how will people exit the bridge.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Blackrock » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:42 pm
Instead the area will be cluttered with signs to warn of the introduced hazard.
You'd want to slow down anyway with pedestrians coming down those stairs....
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby sankari » Thu Mar 13, 2014 12:37 am
Probably thought you were an MHL enforcerTTar wrote: This guy was making like he was waving to a fellow cyclist, but I suspect he was really hiding his face. He's obviously up to no good. He's heading south toward Guildford. Keep an eye out for him, comrades;
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Xplora » Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:52 am
Hopeless. They've managed to create a certain collision zone between riders and peds as well... if I was riding that path, I would hang towards the road to prevent an accident. This option is reduced a lot. There is no zebra crossing, and the bump isn't going to slow cars down (It didn't slow me down in the car this week) so the whole thing is an epic balls up.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby g-boaf » Thu Mar 13, 2014 12:50 pm
I've never been happy to go along that path at much more than 25km/h, and that's the more open areas. This is just very bad planning.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby wellington_street » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:10 pm
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby TTar » Thu Mar 20, 2014 2:10 pm
wellington_street wrote:I like the part where the fence is painted black for maximum invisibility!
The latest is that they appear to have installed permanent safety measures; two orange metal bollards at either edge of the fence bolted into the ground.
I suppose the rounded edge would lessen the lacerations in an collision... that's something.
I hereby formally propose the site be henceforth known as "Hergest Hill" and the abomination itself as "The Horror of Hergest Hill".
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Hergest » Thu Mar 20, 2014 2:43 pm
Ha ha. I bet i'm the first silly bugger to ride into it.TTar wrote:
The latest is that they appear to have installed permanent safety measures; two orange metal bollards at either edge of the fence bolted into the ground.
I suppose the rounded edge would lessen the lacerations in an collision... that's something.
I hereby formally propose the site be henceforth known as "Hergest Hill" and the abomination itself as "The Horror of Hergest Hill".
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Xplora » Thu Mar 20, 2014 4:15 pm
THEN crash into it.
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby wellington_street » Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:14 pm
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Re: Hazard-Guildford To Merrylands Shared Path
Postby Hergest » Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:11 pm
The next problem will be as the fence gets pushed over as it has only been bolted to the footpath using 4 12mm Dynabolts when it should have been core drilled and concreted in. 4 bolts will not hold up a 1200 high fence that children and adults lean against and vandals deliberately try to push over.
I rode through yesterday and again this morning. At least i knew it was there this time so was able to cruise through. I don't know if i was breaking some speed limit at 5.30 on a Sunday morning though.
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