By Dominique Tassell
Southern Downs Regional Council has commenced works on the main lights on the four-way crossing between Palmerin and Grafton streets.
The block was closed down on Sunday 1 August in order for works to go ahead on Palmerin Street, from approximately halfway down the main strip to King Street, and on Grafton from Stewart Avenue to Acacia Avenue.
Works were carried out by Electrical Worx Warwick.
A staff member said they were putting in a new control box and upgrading the workings of the lights.
Eventually, they said, the lights will be monitored in Toowoomba.
Work is scheduled again for Sunday 8 August, when the lights will be replaced.
A bigger radius will be blocked of for this, as machinery is needed.
The new lights will use LED light bulbs instead of the currently used halogen light bulbs.
The use of LED light bulbs will mean less power consumption and longevity for the lights.
The shutting down of the streets caused some chaos, with drivers seemingly caught unawares in the area that was closed off.
Some drivers were forced to do u-turns and drive the wrong way down the street.
Signage was posted at two stages down Palmerin Street, and at one stage on Grafton Street.
Council confirmed that they issues a media release on 7 July and posted a public notice on their website.
A representative of council stated that “during a recent inspection, this unit was found to be obsolete and this instigated the upgrade“.
“A failure, should one have occurred, on this unit would have rendered the traffic lanterns inoperable at this intersection.“
Of the 8 August works, the representative said that “the new system will make a significant improvement to traffic safety at this intersection as the signals will be more visible than those illuminated by the existing incandescent globes, which only provide a few levels of brightness“.
“A secondary benefit is that maintenance and power usage requirements on this system will reduce significantly with the reduction in power cost being driven down by an estimated 80 per cent, supporting the newly adopted Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2021-2031.
“Council received advice from Transport and Main Roads and consulted with Emergency Services to inform the communications strategy and in this instance no statutory advertising was not required as the works did not affect changing any of the movements at the intersection.
“The junction will again be closed between 6am and 5pm on Sunday 8 August 2021 with route diversions in place to ensure safe movement of traffic whilst the works are completed.“
