Road safety project gets underway in South Launceston

Published on 14 August 2024

The City of Launceston has this week started work on a new road safety improvement project in Mulgrave Street, South Launceston.

Funded through the 2023-24 Federal Government's Black Spot Program, the $124,000 project will result in safety improvements at Mulgrave Street's intersections with Galvin Street and Garfield/Pedder Street.

In total there have been nine reported crashes at these two intersections over the past five years, six of those crashes resulting in casualties and one involving a pedestrian.

City of Launceston Acting Mayor Hugh McKenzie said the project would result in a mix of new traffic islands, signage, kerb extensions and pedestrian refuges installed at both intersections.

"The works will make the requirements to give way much clearer for motorists entering Mulgrave Street, and improve sightlines at both intersections," Acting Mayor McKenzie said.

"The kerb extensions and traffic islands will also make it safer for pedestrians by reducing the total crossing distance."

Earlier this year the City of Launceston and the Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) group signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the importance of road safety in Northern Tasmania.

The SARAH group was founded by Peter Frazer OAM, whose 23-year-old daughter Sarah was killed by a distracted truck driver in 2012 in a completely avoidable road crash on the Hume Freeway in regional NSW.

Mr Frazer established National Road Safety Week the following year, which is now recognised annually by Federal, State and local governments across Australia.