Tatura 10km Walking/Cycling Loop

This shared path was a priority project in the Tatura Community Plan and will complete the Final Stage of the Tatura 10km Walking / Cycling Loop, providing 10km of path for outdoor activities for community members and visitors to the region to utilise.

The shared path will bring great safety benefits for the local residents, community members and visitors who will be able to cycle, walk and run along the path, instead of on the road itself.

As part of our shared path alignment design we aimed to minimised the number of road crossings by keeping the path on one side of the road and reducing the number of tree removals required. Council has completed an investigation of the path alignment options in O’Reilly Rd and the southern road reserve is generally wider and has more visibility compared to the northern side, with significantly less trees requiring removal.

The northern side is also constrained by the GMW drain and other local drainage infrastructure. There are a similar number of driveways on both sides of the road, so it was deemed safer to remain on one side than to keep crossing the road to avoid the driveways. Signage and holding rails will be provided along the shared path to make cyclists/pedestrians aware of potential vehicles entering/exiting the driveways.

The great number of feedback responses we received during the recent consultation and throughout the shared path design process have been used to inform our design decisions and the majority of the feedback is supportive of keeping the alignment on the south side.

Originally council  had a short section of the path in the northern road reserve at the east end of O’Reilly Rd, near Dhurringile Rd, however following the recent customer consultation council has amended the design to keep the entire length of the path on the south side to reduce the number of road crossings and therefore improve safety. This change requires three small native trees to be removed in the southern road reserve. Council will offset the tree removals through new tree plantings in 2022.

As part of the stone dust path construction council will not be upgrading or disturbing any existing driveways. There will be some heavy machinery and plant in the street during construction, for which we will provide you advanced notice via a letter drop. Council aims to reduce any inconvenience to the local residents during construction, but please contact us on the email or phone number below if you have any specific concerns.

The make-up of the new shared path will be a compacted 50mm deep layer of stone dust on a base of compacted 100mm Class 3 crushed rock. Council expects this to be hard wearing and suitable for pushing prams, riding bicycles, running and walking.

Construction is planned to take approximately 4 weeks and will occur in the first half of 2021 and will be determined through the availability of contractors and suitable weather. Construction is to be completed by 30 June 2021.

The only changes to the existing maintenance responsibility is that Council will maintain the new shared path itself and a 1-metre strip either side of the path (e.g. keeping the grass short) and including the strip between the path and the road. The remaining area of the road reserve will continue to be maintained under the existing responsibility.

The current funding does not include for seats or street furniture along the path and there are no current plans for upgrades to the lighting, kerbs and road pavement in O’Reilly Rd. These assets are on our long term priority programs and will be monitored for any upgrades required.