A Williamstown urban designer says removing a level crossing at Williamstown North train station and building a flyover will physically divide the community and destroy its village feel.
Philip Ward, who consulted for Hobsons Bay council after the Newport community was bisected by a flyover, said there were many alternative traffic-calming measures that could improve pedestrian safety.
Labor made a pre-election promise to remove the crossing in Ferguson Street, Williamstown, where two children died more than 20 years ago and a man suffered brain damage after being dragged on his bicycle by a train in 2011.
Mr Ward noted that the two children killed and the cyclist injured were as a result of trains, not vehicles.
“Pedestrian safety is paramount, but there are myriad solutions for it,” he said. “Grade separation is cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer.”
‘Black tube of death’
Mr Ward said the flyover built at Newport meant the only way to get from the Hall Street shopping strip to The Substation arts precinct was via “the black tube of death”.
“Grade separation has a history of irrevocably altering community,” he said. “Just look at the Newport flyover with council and others all trying to think of ways to stitch back together what grade separation rents apart. What makes a village vibrant is pedestrian traffic.”
Mr Ward agreed with fellow Williamstown resident Jason Bryce, who last month told Star Weekly a flyover would increase traffic speeds and cause more motorists to pass through Williamstown.
“Grade separation has a history of higher speed limits and increased traffic all over North America,” Mr Ward said.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said the design of the flyover would be subject to consultation with council and the community.
VicRoads has not reported any casualty crashes involving drivers, cyclists and pedestrians at the Kororoit Creek Road/Champion Road/Railway Avenue intersection in the five years ending June 30, 2015.
