Black spots marked

Another truck rollover on the notorious Lobb Street bend at Churchill. The corner could be fixed by the Federal Government.

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A DEADLY bend at Churchill and four other black spots on Ipswich roads have been referred to the Federal Government for funding.

Ipswich City Council has made a submission to the Government under the 2011/2012 Nation Building Black Spot Program to undertake safety improvement works.

City Works Committee chairman Trevor Nardi said the submission included the following projects:

Brisbane Terrace – Goodna: widen shoulders, street-lighting improvements, install guard rails

Lobb Street, Churchill – install median and widen pavement on curve

Blackstone Road/Grange Road, Silkstone – re-model traffic signals

Edwards Street/Raceview Street, Raceview – install traffic signals

Alice Street/Church Street, Goodna – install traffic signals.

On December 6 last year the sharp bend on Lobb Street claimed the life of a man after his four-wheel-drive ran off the road.

The bend has been the site of numerous other crashes over the years despite signs warning drivers to slow down approaching the bridge.

Cr Nardi said that to be eligible for Black Spot Project funding, projects must meet the following criteria:

The site is to have had at least three injury crashes over the past five years;

Work is to have a benefit/cost ratio of greater than two – that is the calculated benefit to the community from a reduction in crashes is at least twice the cost of the project;

Work must not exceed $2 million in overall cost;

Work is not to include replacing traffic signals with LED lanterns, as these are considered part of normal maintenance functions of road authorities.

“They are all equally important and I hope they all get up,” Cr Nardi said.

“They are all there for a reason, but we just have to wait and see which ones get the tick of approval. They all fit the criteria, it just depends on the cut-off.”

He said more than $3 million worth of work was identified by council’s traffic engineers after a review of road-crash data and analysis of potential treatments.

“Our submission of five locations will be assessed,” he said. “Due to funding constraints, not all eligible projects receive funding, so we have to wait until July next year when the Federal Government will announce the successful projects.”