m8_bicyc

Reject 3.5 metre swathe for Bicycle Road in
foreshore bushland from Cromer to Charman Road!

Instead convert centre
turn lane to a median strip & extend, to Cromer
Rd, Beach Rd’s 2-lane safety section from Charman
Rd, adding 3 m of road surface to 1 m of verge. MORE

CLICK

ON YOUR SUBJECT OF INTEREST, OR A PHOTO FOR
ENLARGEMENT AND DETAILED CAPTION, BELOW

View

from just west of Deauville Street towards Charman
Road

Safety

Section of 2 motor lanes between
Charman Rd and Deauville St

EXTEND
SAFETY SECTION: SAVE BUSH & RESERVE

Use

part of Beach Rd Reserve:

A
2007 report (Item

4.5 p.22) to Council gave options for a route on the
road reserve to spare Bayside’s longest section of
coast with no concrete, car parks or structures.

Council

again unsuccessfully contacted
VicRoads, and its
then Minister,
seeking

room on the road reserve for the bicycle road. See
VicRoads ‘sharing’
page.

In June 2008, Greens MLC, Sue Pennicuik,
addressed

Parliament on

that. Next month, Liberal MLC, Andrea Coote,
presented a 599-signature
petition
to

Parliament seeking its support.

Extending

to Cromer Rd the

850 m Beach Road Safety

Section (Mundy

St, Mentone, to Deauville St, Beaumaris) – where car
lanes were reduced from

4 to 3, over 15 years ago – by only
40% (350 m) would
give

that room.

Damage to Foreshore Reserve
will result otherwise:

Council

recognizes that, if the road reserve is not utilized
to avoid intruding into the Foreshore Reserve, part
of the 30 hectare Beaumaris

Bay Fossil Site
(ID

is 18053) – on the Register of the National Estate
since 1999 – and VEAC’s proposed nature reserve will be
harmed, by removal of over 100 trees, and a lot of
its soil.

By

2011, three major points have emerged:

·        

the
little-used 3 m wide central turning lane in the Safety

Section
(usable by
westbound traffic only) ought

to be replaced with a much narrower
raised median strip, to provide c. 1.7 m more road
space, except at the Charman Rd end.  

·        

the Safety
Section ought

to be extended 350 m further west to
near Cromer Rd, to remove the need for incursion
into the Foreshore Reserve there, except near Cromer
Rd, where a dedicated right turn and U-turn lane
would be needed.

·        

if the
above road changes are not made, DSE’s

Vegetation Gain Approach will entail
closing the sandy

cliff top walking track between
Charman & Cromer Roads – to strong disapproval
locally & much further afield.

LAST
UNCONCRETED 850 METRES: AN ERRATIC HISTORY

Kennett

Era:
The Conservation Minister from 1992

to 1996, Hon Mark

Birrell, decided to build a bicycle
road around

the Port Phillip coast, with no
planning for the most environmentally

difficult sections, such as this 850
metre length. That led to that era’s unelected
municipal commissioners dutifully and
enthusiastically building the easy parts elsewhere
first, thus creating a momentum to force damaging
outcomes on sections like this.

2000:
See Bayside Council’s Black Rock-Beaumaris
Foreshore Master Plan. Its Fig
7 (Action 11H)
set a Priority 2 for the bicycle road’s “missing
link” (Cromer Rd to Charman Rd) to be on the Beach
Road reservation or, failing that, along the kerb.
It knew that meant trees would be lost.

2002:
Bayside City Council removed the improperly sited end
of its concrete bicycle road at Cromer Road, as it
intruded near the cliff brink.

2003:
Bayside City Council published its Bayside

Bicycle Strategy 2003.

2005:
16 pink

survey markers appeared

along the present unpaved cliff-top walking track,
which is not a route on which the link to
Charman Road should be even considered, as bisecting
the vegetated reserve would add 2 extra edges
to it, and lead to pressure for great disturbance by
widening, and by lighting on light poles. The
alternatives would not so greatly increase the
number of edges to vegetated areas. The closer to
the cliff brink the more important is Beach Park’s
vegetation and ambience.

2006:
The

bitumen on Beach Road east of Cromer Road is about 1
metre wider than it is to the west.
That legacy of former councils whose boundary was
Cromer Road should enable release of the surplus 1
metre to reduce impact on Beach Park.

2008:
Bayside Council staff proposed a bicycle road to
bisect this unconcreted strip either by a
“meandering” route cutting through bushland, or – to
make the inevitable damage less publicly conspicuous
– by surfacing most of the sandy walking path.
The staff’s alternative option was an impracticable
“granitic sand” road that would eventually be
replaced by concrete, and just distracts from the
concern about bisecting the reserve.

2009:
Bayside Council rejected the 2008 staff options, and
unanimously resolved (minutes

P. 11) to favour a
“back-of-kerb” option (as called for
by the 2000

Master Plan) and renew its approach to
VicRoads in that regard.

2011:
See VicRoads plans for Beach Rd’s 2-lane
& 4-lane sections. Bayside

Council has asked it to explain why
the little-used central

turning lane should not be removed,
so the bicycle road extension could fit on Beach Rd,
thus avoiding removing scores of mature coastal
trees, & concreting foreshore. VEAC Report’s Recommendation E4
is for a 3 ha nature reserve here.