A damaged guardrail on a dangerous section of Bulli Pass has gone unrepaired for more than a month.
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The guardrail is located on the hairpin bend, next to the truck arrester bed.
That means the missing piece is almost directly in front of any southbound traffic heading down the steep incline of Bulli Pass.
Roads and Maritime Services have been aware of the damaged guardrail for more than a month but is not planning on replacing it until the middle of August.
“A guardrail on Bulli Pass was damaged in late June by a truck,” a spokesman for RMS said.
“It will be replaced during the next routine maintenance closure on August 16 and 17 to avoid impact to traffic.”
Regular road closures have been the way RMS tackles work on main routes in and out of the Illawarra.
As well as Bulli Pass, the M1 Princes Motorway and Picton Road have also been closed to traffic for a night, in order to allow a wide range of maintenance work to be completed in one go.
The RMS spokesman declined to say whether the damaged guardrail posed a danger to the thousands of motorists who travel up and down Bulli Pass every day.
According to an RMS traffic counter near the hairpin, more than 12,000 cars travel along Bulli Pass each day – 6160 northbound and 6713 southbound.
The RMS spokesman said moves had been made to address safety at the hairpin.
“The damaged guardrail has been moved back from the road and warning measures put in place to ensure the safety of motorists,” the spokesman said.
These warning measures are two yellow-and-black-striped warning sawhorses and two witches’ hats.
Keira MP and shadow minister for the Illawarra Ryan Park was not impressed that motorists will have to wait for the guardrail to be repaired.
“It is simply not good enough that this guardrail still isn’t fixed and to be told it will not be fixed for another month is ridiculous,” Mr Park said.
“Guardrails are there for a very good reason, to stop vehicles running completely off the road. The integrity of this rail is completely compromised and should another truck or car lose control it has the potential to have disastrous results.”
He said there needed to be a more urgent response to fixing the damage.
“The RMS needs to give this a greater priority,” Mr Park said.
“It is located on one of the most, if not the most, dangerous parts of Bulli Pass and it needs to be replaced”.
Bulli Pass has been the subject of study by RMS.
At present it is developing a “corridor strategy” for the pass between George Avenue and Bulli Tops, which is due to be completed later this year.