The Midson Road Refuge Island upgrade was completed in 2021.
City of Parramatta installed a pedestrian and cyclist refuge island in Midson Road at Wyralla Avenue, Epping, along with small sections of shared user path as per the concept plan accessible in the 'Midson Road Refuge Island - Resources' section.
Following community consultation in 2020, the proposal was put to Council's Traffic Committee and approved on Thursday 5 November 2020. The proposal was then taken to the Council Meeting held on Monday 7 December 2020, where it was resolved that the project would be delivered.
Previously, Council advertised the extended refuge island shown in Figure 1. The key concerns raised during consultation were the scale of concrete and the undesirability of restricting right turns in this location. Therefore, a scaled down island is now proposed that does not restrict right turns, and shared paths are on the southern side only.
A refuge island allows people to cross a road in two stages. On a busy road like Midson, it makes it easier to cross as someone only has to wait for a break in traffic from one direction.
The Melaleuca on the north eastern corner that was proposed to be removed is now retained, however the Brushbox identified in Figure 3 will need to be removed. An independent road safety audit identified that someone standing on the David Scott Reserve corner crossing to the east would not be able to see the oncoming northbound traffic (and vice versa) from an adequate distance.
In close proximity, locations have been identified to plant 8, 75L (4m) mature Brushbox trees to offset this loss.
