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A victory for safety Barrier between highway and Maitland Park to protect children's playground • MELISSAH COMBER
ears of cars careening into Maitland Park will soon be a thing ofthe past, with Roads and Maritime Services currently working to install a safety barrier between the park and the New England Highway. In the last four years, four incidents of vehicles crashing through the chain fence that separates the park from the highway have been recorded, including a February 2012 accident in which a ute barrelled through the fence, struck a light post and pulled up metres short of a children's bicycle track. When reporting on safety concerns in both October and November last year, the Post was told by the RMS that no upgrades to the fence would be undertaken until later this year in conjunction with in-progress roundabout works, but Member for Maitland Robyn Parker said that the work was brought forward in response to those concerns. "Given the number of repairs needed on the chain fence recently we're concerned about the risk of a vehicle entering the park and injuring pedestrians," Ms Parker said. "The balance of it won't be completed until after the roundabouts are finished, and that is on the [train station] side of the overpass, but we're doing the park because that's where the concern has been with cars crashing through." The 400-metre barrier project will cost $300,000, but is extra funding on top ofthe $45 million being spent on the dual roundabout works.
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The scene of a November 2013 accident at Maitland Park
"They got nagged until they came up with it," Ms Parker said. "I don't care about where they found it, all I care about is that I got it." Ms Parker said that the barrier may also reduce noise in Maitland Park and a 30-metre shared
path would be built to connect to existing paths. The work is expected to be completed by the end of this month, with another 130 metres of the safety barrier to be later installed on the other side of the highway as part of the roundabout upgrade.
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