Preppies in northern Melbourne have learnt about safety around roads and construction zones thanks to the team delivering safer, more-reliable travel with the Mickleham Road Upgrade – Stage 1.
Project team members visited Greenvale’s Aitken College on Wednesday 8 May to provide the children with fun learning experiences for National Road Safety Week 2024. Over three sessions, the team taught the college’s youngest pupils valuable lessons such as how to cross at traffic lights and what people should do when they see traffic-control signs. As part of the fun, the preppies enjoyed an activity in which they pretended to be cars, with the aim of driving through a road crossing without breaking any laws. The children also learnt about the importance of personal protective equipment such as hard hats and high-visibility vests in construction zones. At the end of each session, the team gave each child a show bag with information about the upgrade to take home to their guardians.
The sessions reflected the project’s commitment to creating lasting legacies, with the Aitken College preppies learning lifelong lessons on being safe around roads and construction zones. When complete, the Mickleham Road Upgrade – Stage 1 will make travel to Aitken College easier and safer for everyone, with a traffic light operated intersection and new slip lanes to enter and exit the school. Traffic splitter islands and guardrail will be installed at the approaches to the Aitken College intersection, making it safer for commuters using Mickleham Road.
The Mickleham Road Upgrade – Stage 1 is adding lanes in each direction between Somerton Road and Dellamore Boulevard to improve safety and ease congestion for the 25,000 drivers using the road daily. As part of Stage 1, the roundabout at Somerton and Mickleham roads will be replaced with a new traffic light intersection, including priority bus lanes, to better manage traffic flow. Intersection upgrades at Lemonwood Drive and Greenvale Gardens Boulevard are also now complete, with upgrades to take place at Hillview Road and Dellamore Boulevard later this year. The project also includes new sections of shared walking and cycling path to improve connectivity on Mickleham Road.
Planning and development work is underway to inform the potential Mickleham Road Upgrade - Stage 2, between Dellamore Boulevard and Craigieburn Road.
Find out more about the Mickleham Road Upgrade.