Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison has penned an urgent letter to Roads Minister Melinda Pavey, saying confusion over line marking on the New England Highway is putting lives at risk.
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Motorist Clint Brosie captured footage between the railway station roundabout and the Trzecinski bridge which shows some drivers are thoroughly confused about where the two westbound lanes lie.
The new lanes are clearly marked in white and the original lanes have been covered with a dark colour to make them redundant. This change has left some people positioning their vehicles in the wrong place.
Ms Aitchison says its an accident waiting to happen and has called on Ms Pavey for advice and invited her to inspect the problems.
The NSW Roads and Maritime Service has told Ms Aitchison it would review the line marking.
“I seek your urgent advice as to how the Government proposes to fix this unmitigated disaster which will likely cause a fatality in our community, and improve traffic flows in our community,” she wrote.
Ms Aitchison also raised concerns about traffic congestion around the railway station roundabout and called for a solution.
“Since the opening of the new flyover last year, I have received many complaints about the congestion and traffic problems this has caused for motorists from all other directions,” she wrote.“Traffic seems to be flowing appropriately for those using the new flyover travelling west to east, but in all other directions traffic is congested to the point of no or very little flow during peak times.”
The RMS has told Ms Aitchison it was investigating the amount of traffic using the roundabout and at this stage it thought the one-way flyer could have changed the routes some drivers used.
Shane Ward, of Gillieston Heights, said westbound congestion in the afternoon sometimes extended to the information centre near the High Street intersection.
Last week he saw the morning gridlock extend along Cessnock Road all the way back to the start of Gillieston Heights.
Mr Ward said the RMS should take drone footage of the morning gridlock between 8.30am and 9.30am so it could observe the extent of the problem.
“It’s out of hand and has become complete chaos recently,” he said. “People are becoming banked up on the actual round-about and the near-misses are ridiculous.”