Traffic lights endorsed for busy intersection

8 May 2024

At its meeting on Monday May 6 2024, Mount Barker District Council made a significant decision to improve traffic management and safety by endorsing the installation of traffic lights at the intersection of Hartmann, Alexandrina, and Bald Hills roads.

This move comes in response to increasing congestion and the imperative to improve safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.

Traffic data collected by the council reveals that the intersection is currently operating at near full capacity at peak times, necessitating an upgrade to accommodate present and future traffic volumes effectively.

Mt Barker Mayor, David Leach said that Council remains committed to enhancing transport infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of the community, ensuring safer and more efficient travel for all road users.

“A thorough comparison of the upgrade options for this intersection was made against multiple criteria such as functionality, safety, impact on trees and private properties, and cost,” Mayor Leach said.

Three potential solutions were considered before a recommendation was put to the council to install traffic lights to ease congestion at this busy junction. Other options were a 20-meter diameter dual lane roundabout, and a 12-meter diameter single lane roundabout.

While a 20-meter diameter dual lane roundabout would achieve results similar to traffic lights, it posed significant challenges including impacts on surrounding native vegetation and the necessity for land acquisition. Similarly, a 12-meter diameter roundabout was found to be less effective and not compliant for the B-double truck route along Alexandrina and Bald Hills Road.

“A signalised intersection emerged as the best solution, offering a high level of effectiveness whilst having minimal impact on the surrounding native vegetation and not likely requiring any land acquisition,” Mayor Leach said.

This project marks the first set of intersection traffic lights owned by the council on the local road network. Monitoring and maintenance of the traffic signals would be outsourced to an external party, following the model established for existing school crossings and pedestrian activated signals.

Early cost estimates for the construction of the traffic lights range between $2 and $4 million and has been factored into the council’s draft Long Term Financial Plan.

Funding for the project will be sourced from developer contributions to the Transport Infrastructure Separate Rate with the project now proceeding to detailed design in 2024/25 and then construction in subsequent years.

Hartmann Road lights plan