Geraldton council debate future of controversial Chapman Road activation project ahead of next week’s vote

Geraldton councillors debated the next steps for the controversial Chapman Road CBD project on Tuesday night, which is set to be voted on at next week’s council meeting.

If given the green light, the updated road will remain as a two-way single lane with a maximum speed limit of 30km/h, but will revert to a straight lane, removing the disputed snaked layout.

The second phase will include on-street parking and placement of physical boundaries to delineate pedestrian and vehicle spaces, as well as adjust merging and demerging sections along the street.

Director of infrastructure services at the City, Chris Lee, said while there was an unlimited number of things they could explore through the trial process, they only had a limited budget.

“What we’ve drawn on that map is a concept that takes some of the more successful elements out of what we’ve learnt and tried to incorporate that with the CBD masterplan vision for Chapman Road.”

“We know that the general feeling from the community was the wiggle was very unpopular, so its really an attempt to rerun the trial as a low-cost budget exercise to test that one-lane configuration, straight-line option,” Mr Lee said.

He said there were several other options council could look at to move forward at the end of the 12-month trial.

Mayor Shane Van Styn questioned if there could be a pull-in, pull-out bay to help traffic flow, rather than encouraging people to reverse park.

CEO Ross McKim said they could do pull-in, pull-out but would have to convert two parking bays to one.

“It is a 30km/h zone, we’re confident that the locals will improve their skills and pull this off successfully,” Mr McKim said.

He also outlined that the existing curbs on Chapman Road do not allow for both parking and cycle lanes.

“So the thought is you put the parking in there because the road restriction of 30km deals with the motorists and cyclists, that interaction should be a lot safer.”

Cr Natasha Colliver asked if the inclusion of parking bays was a request from business owners on that strip.

Mr McKim said this was not the case and highlighted the fact that changes intended to make the road pedestrian-friendly did not increase foot traffic through the area.

“I think until there is some other significant changes to the nature of the businesses through there I’m not sure we’re going to create that impetus for folk to want to come and stay in that area just through roadworks, I think there’s more to it than that,” he said.