Torquay’s waiting for it, the green light

THE new traffic lights at the intersection of Beach Road and the Surf Coast Highway are still not operational, and the Surf Coast Shire and Powercor both say the other is responsible for the delay.

Constructed just before Christmas at one of Torquay’s most dangerous intersections, it was expected that the traffic signals and public lights would be up and running by the end of February, following a connection process of up to six weeks.

More than a week into March, this has not yet happened.

In early January, Powercor said that as the signals and lights were installed by the shire’s contractor, a full audit must take place before Powercor could connect them, but it had not yet received the “as built” construction plans from the contractor.

This week, a Powercor spokesperson said the company was still waiting for the “as constructed” plans.

“Until these have been received, Powercor is not in a position to carry out any connection works as the project is still considered a construction site under the customer’s control.

“As outlined previously, the connection process takes between two to six weeks, depending on resource availability.”

Shire general manager of governance and infrastructure Anne Howard said that the council’s contractor had “gone through the standard process to connect power to the traffic signals, including testing and commissioning.”

“We understand that Powercor is working through its approval tasks to have power to the signals as soon as possible.

“Council is also working with VicRoads to finalise the VicRoads-supplied signal control box.

“We are working with all so that the lights will be in use as soon as possible. This is later than expected and we thank everyone for their patience.”