Premier Bartlett has pledged $8 million to Fix Ferry Road. The promise is part of Labor’s Community Roads Package announced yesterday.
Funding for the package is spread over 4 years and will of course be contingent on Labor still being in power come the end of March.
This is the first real sign of financial commitment to Fix Ferry Road in over 15 years of community campaigning. Let’s hope the opposition parties will match the promise – just in case.
One of the most pedestrian unfriendly parts of the walk between the Ferry Terminal and Oyster Cove Marina has been bypassed.
Pedestrians beware
Up until recently the only way to travel on foot in a westerly direction from the western end of South Haven Marina was along Ferry Road. This often entailed squeezing between the Armco barrier and the queued ferry traffic. If a log truck or a gravel truck came along while negotiating this section then extreme caution was required.
Now, thanks the enterprise of the proprietor of Able Marine pedestrians can now continue along the waterfront on their newly completed boardwalk.
Able Marine's new boardwalk
A Kettering Foreshore Walkway has been on the drawing board for years but as with most other government or Council initiatives that’s where Ferry Road projects usually stay. You couldn’t be blamed if you thought that both these organisations have a predeliction for spending all their money on consultants, studies and consultation rather than getting on and doing something practical.
Thanks for showing them the way Angelo.
On 15 December 2009 I reported in an an article entitled Sturgo stays schtum that a number of letters to the Minister for Infrastructure had gone unacknowledged and unanswered. This remains the case. However in a letter dated 14 January 2010, received by another Ferry Road resident, Mr Sturges breaks his silence. In the letter he states:
The Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER) will be commencing the detailed planning for the upgrade of Ferry Road and provision of additional ferry marshalling areas during 2010. This planning will include engineering, environmental, heritage and aboriginal cultural investigations over the next two years, leading to a detailed design.
In the short term, DIER officers will investigate options for demand management to minimise the impact of ferry related traffic, which will be implemented as soon as possible.
It’s reassuring to know that DIER will start some planning work sometime in 2010. It’s somewhat less encouraging when you consider that it will be sometime in 2012 before a shovel ever hits the dirt and may very well be 2013 before we see the final results.
A two year planning and design phase seems extraordinary for a project of this size. Particularly when you consider that detailed engineering drawings and plans were completed in 2003! Anyway, let’s be grateful for a small positive sign and just hope that financial commitments are made to the project to ensure it actually happens.
The letter goes on to say:
On the issue of wastewater treatment, the written submissions to Council on the Plan were, in the majority, opposed to a reticulated system. On that basis, and with the urgency of resolving current issues at the ferry terminal/cafe. DIER will be reconsidering options for resolving its own issues in the short term.
The Minister’s stance on the sewerage issue is perplexing given that when Council considered the Precint Plan at their November meeting, after lengthy public consultation, they agreed to:
seek the views of the Southern Water Board on whether it is prepared to be an active participant in the provision of a reticulated sewerage system for Kettering either in the short or longer term; whilst at the same time considering any other options which may be available for Council to assist property owners who currently have non-complying wastewater treatment systems.
Did they go against the majority view of the community in deciding this course of action? No of course not. In fact the report by the General Manager to Council states that:
Of the thirty-six submissions received by Council, seventeen were not in favour of a sewerage scheme . . .
By my calculations that makes it 19 Ayes and 17 Nays. I think the Ayes have it Minister!
There is clearly not whole-hearted support for a reticulated system but many people were opposed to the recommendation because they didn’t want a treatment plant at the oval, or they didn’t know how much it would cost, or some other issue of detail. All valid concerns, but how can they be resolved if the minister simply pulls the plug on the idea because he’s either not that good at arithmetic or has a contorted view of democracy? If no one does a proper design how do we know how much it will cost or what visual or other impact it might have?
Can’t we at least have some work done by Southern Water to work up a properly costed proposal so that people can make an informed decision? Or is the band-aid approach the preferred method of operation for this government?
In the meantime Council needs to take action immediately to ensure that owners of those properties with non-complying wastewater treatment systems undertake remedial work. Council have known of the problems since a 2007 audit but even now appear reluctant to take action.
Many Kettering residents had hoped that the adoption of the Precinct Plan by Council would provide the circuit breaker for their decade-long struggle against government and Council inaction on the Ferry Road issues.
The signs are promising but we are still a long way from seeing real progress.
With just over 60 days before the state elections, time is running out to secure some commitments from the competing parties. Make sure you make all the candidates aware of your expectations for Ferry Road improvements.
DIER have commissioned surveyors to check the accuracy of existing survey documentation for Ferry Road. The very same surveyor who did the last major measurement in August 2000 was re-measuring the road today. That (Millenium) survey was done as part of the detailed planning for all the improvements that were touted at the time. But just like all the consultant’s reports and engineer’s drawings that have been produced in the past the surveyor’s output was never put to any practical use. Despite this frustration the surveyor was still smiling – well who wouldn’t be smiling being paid to wander about in the sunshine on such a beautiful summer’s day (convoy of Hazell Bros. gravel trucks notwithstanding)?
The surveyor may be a little more cynical then he was in the Millenium year which may explain his lack of surprise to discover that Ferry Road is in fact in exactly the same place it was all that time ago. In fact, as we are all very well aware, absolutely nothing has changed in the past decade.
Will this discovery be used as the basis for some real progress? Is the new survey work tied to the Precinct Plan recommendations? Will Premier Bartlett make an election promise to Fix Ferry Road? Will the opposition parties trump his promise?
Cross your fingers and close your eyes . . . you may be in for a big surprise.
So how did you fair over the Christmas break with the Ferry Road traffic and Bruny Island Ferry queues?
Yours truly did the wise thing and went elsewhere for a few days until the dust settled. But a neighbour reported a 30 minute delay to get from the ferry into his yard which is less than 100 metres from the ferry terminal. Returning from a short break on Bruny with 13′ boat in tow he was forced to drive up the the highway and turn round and join the queue until he was able to get back to his driveway with enough room to swing in. This was on 4 January!
Boxing Day was surprisingly quiet but how did the other peak days affect you?
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