By Margaret Maccoll
A Sunrise Beach cafe owner is calling for a pedestrian crossing to be installed on Tingira Crescent after a detour turned the small street into a major highway.
Chalet and Co cafe owner Will Lillecrapp started up a petition for a crossing after Noosa Council commenced construction on the Orealla Crescent Bridge on David Low Way and diverted traffic along Tingira Crescent.
Mr Lillecrapp said the normally quiet beachside strip had become very busy particularly at peak times in the mornings and afternoons.
He said he had lost business since the construction began which was made worse because Council prevented vehicles from parking on the cafe side of the road.
“They haven’t had any consultation process, no impact plan,” he said. “There’s only one cafe here and I wasn’t consulted. We get tradies who drive past every day. Now they can’t stop and get their coffee and bacon and egg roll.”
Mr Lillecrapp said Council responded to his calls for a crossing by saying it would create a bottleneck.
“Isn’t community safety paramount?,” he said. “The (roadwork) signs say it’s local traffic only. People are trying to get to the beach. If someone does get run over who’s accountable for that.”
Residents and visitors described the small street traffic as “full on”.
“We’ve been coming up here for 20 years,” Britt Groom said. “It’s a really quiet street. It’s not really equipped to be the highway.”
Noosa councillor Amelia Lorentsen submitted a petition containing 289 signatures calling for a pedestrian crossing at last Thursday’s Ordinary Meeting.
Cr Lorentsen described the street as a “high safety risk”.
The $3.8 million Orealla Crescent Bridge replacement project is jointly funded by Noosa Council and the Australian Government, as part of the Bridge Renewal Program.
The construction of a stronger and wider bridge is set to benefit the local community and economy and is expected to take about five months with the highway closed until late August.
Roadwork signs alert drivers of vehicles longer than 8.8m to use the Sunshine Motorway via Emu Mountain Road and Eenie Creek Road and encourage motorists to take alternative routes where possible.
TransLink and BusLink services are operating as normal on the David Low Way detour along Tingira Crescent.
