Bypass build leads to speed fears

DRYSDALE residents have called on the City of Greater Geelong to improve safety measures at Princess Street following the construction of the town’s Bellarine Highway bypass.

Bellarine Ward councillor and deputy mayor Trent Sullivan brought the petition to last month’s council meeting on behalf of local woman Petra Porter, following concerns about increased traffic volume and speed at the busy road.

Ms Porter’s petition had attracted 104 signatures, and calls for traffic management changes at the arterial road that links the recently built Drysdale Bypass to the centre of town.

The bypass construction means Princess Street has seen an increase in traffic from the roundabout that intersects it and the new road, which would previously have gone down High Street.

Local fears for the road spiked in late March when emergency service crews were called to an incident of a four-wheel drive crashing into a parked vehicle and rolling over at the road.

The petition called for the city to consider installing speed humps on Princess Street to slow down vehicles leaving the highway and travelling through a residential area on the way to Drysdale.

Ms Porter’s petition also calls for extension of a safe bike lane from the bypass all the way to High Street and extending a pedestrian path to the Bellarine Rail Trail just north of the bypass roundabout to ensure a safer journey for walkers.

The $117 million bypass opened to traffic in mid-2020 as the Bellarine Peninsula’s largest-ever road infrastructure project.