A cement truck was the second heavy vehicle to overturn at the intersection in eight days. Photo: Erika Neo.
For the second time in just over a week a truck has turned over at the problematic intersection on the northern side of the Gobbagombalin Bridge.
A man in his 20s was taken to Wagga Base Hospital after the cement truck he was driving rolled onto its side at the intersection of the Old Narrandera Road and the Olympic Highway.
Paramedics treated the man at the scene just after 10 am Wednesday 17 August and, while he appeared to be unharmed, he was taken to hospital as a precaution.
The truck lay sprawled across the centre of Old Narrandera Road, blocking both directions and slowing traffic on the Olympic Highway.
Emergency crews attended the scene and the truck was removed, leaving the road smeared with spilled cement.
It comes just eight days after another truck rolled over at the same intersection on Tuesday last week.
Bruce Durham, from the Estella Progress Association, said the intersection had been a problem for years.
“A while back a crane went over the embankment on the left-hand side coming off the bridge and there’s always people cutting in on the flow of traffic and not signaling and cutting across another so it’s been quite common,” he said.
As the northern suburbs have boomed in recent years, the traffic problem has worsened, particularly for those turning right from Old Narrandera Road onto the Olympic Highway.
“We’ve had council proposing to put traffic lights and stuff at that corner, but then we’ve got people very much against that and some people very much for it, no one’s sure whether it’ll do the job or not,” he shrugged.
“And now they’ve started talking about a second bridge.”
The situation at the north of the bridge was one of the key issues presented to the NSW Government by locals as the long-term Wagga transport plan was being drafted.
Transport for NSW has committed to “investigate” the idea of a bridge duplication within the next five years, however their position is that it is unlikely.
“While council has identified the need for duplicating Gobbagombalin Bridge in the Integrated Transport Strategy, the Urban Highway Study indicated that with appropriate traffic management, the capacity of the bridge is sufficient in the short to medium term,” reads the report.
Peak morning congestion on the northern side of the bridge. Photo: Wagga Wagga Transport Plan.
The study identified “safety and efficiency issues” on the Olympic Highway intersections on both sides of Gobbagombalin Bridge and conceded that the issues on both Old Narranderra Road and Travers Street would only get worse as the volumes of traffic increase.
When considering the problematic northern intersection, the report again cited the council’s Integrated Transport Strategy and the idea of opening Gardiner Street opposite Old Narrandera Road to provide alternative access to the CBD via the Wiradjuri Bridge.
In the meantime, the peak hour bridge traffic remains a hot topic for the city’s northern residents.
“More and more houses being built out there at Gobba and in the morning sometimes they’re banked up over the hill waiting to get onto the bridge,” Mr Durham said.
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