Shouldn’t be approved

ON WEDNESDAY, February 3, the Toowoomba Regional Council approved the construction of a new 24/7 unmanned service station at 133-137 North St, Toowoomba.

Due to its location there are “safety concerns” about travelling to and from and entering the service station.

This station is for refuelling heavy vehicles and cars and is going to be 150 metres on the eastern side of the railway underpass in North St.

This underpass causes many heavy vehicles accidents a year, as they get jammed underneath the underpass, with the latest incident only eight days before this special meeting in which this service station was approved by council. This was discussed at the meeting.

I would have thought that the applicant for the service station would have been thinking of their valued customers by working out how they could get their heavy vehicles to their service station without leaving the top of their truck under the underpass.

If you have just came off the new Toowoomba Bypass and put 133 North St, the location of new service station, into the GPS, it will take you under the underpass causing major damage.

Just because the GPS takes you this way, truck drivers would just take it for granted that all is good and not even think of their height.

North St needs safety chimes installed like they have in some parts of Brisbane; they are a steel structured frame covering the full width of roadway with chimes hanging from it to tell you if you are too high before you go under the bridge.

Then there would be required a turnaround area between the chimes and the underpass before going under the underpass.

North St is a busy street at any time especially peak times, school drop off and pick up times without adding into the equation the trains that hold up traffic.

Many times people have had to wait three to four traffic light changes to get to Mort St from Davidson St.

Trucks and cars turning into the service station coming down North St heading west from Ruthven St will hold up all traffic as they do a right turn across oncoming traffic to enter into the service station.

Emergency vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances, use this road often during a day, while going to save someone’s life, and they don’t need to be held up while a heavy vehicle is waiting for a break in the traffic to turn into the service station.

The road cannot be widened any more to make a slip lane for traffic to pass to the left of the traffic turning into the station, as there is no land to reclaim.

For heavy vehicles to go to the service station from the bypass they will have to travel along Mort St to Jellicoe St up to Kenilworth St then into North St then turn left to go to the service station, then after fuelling up they will have to back track to get back to where they are going.

I can’t really understand why we need another service station as there is a new one being constructed at Gregory and Ruthven Sts on the corner, 650 metres to BP at Ruthven and North Sts, 400 metres to a new service station approved at North and Mort Sts, and this new one at 133-137 North St is not on the corner which makes its entry unsafe due to its location.

Two trees will be removed from the footpath for this construction for which the council will be paid $30,000. One is a gum tree which has been there for a very long time.

Local knowledge of this area points out that this service station should never been passed by council, until some discussions to change the low underpass on the western entrance of North St to the service station.

Safety is key factor in today’s living. We should put public safety first. Money can’t replace a human life.

I. McQUILLAN, Toowoomba