Brendan Simpkins
MOTORISTS can no longer turn right into the Evanston On The Run (OTR) from Potts Road after the addition of a concrete barrier.
It meant that drivers would have to make a U-turn further along the road and enter from the left-hand side, with the only other point of entry preferred for traffic exiting onto Main North Road.
Grant McDougall is a regular user of the service station, stopping in to purchase petrol every second night on his way home to Munno Para West from work in the Barossa Valley.
However, he is likely to take his business elsewhere, with a handful of stations closer to home and now easier to access.
Mr McDougall criticised the lack of foresight by planners for the addition of the island, and for preventing U-turns from being performed.
“There is no foresight whatsoever gone into it,” he said.
“If you are coming from other directions, how are you meant to get into a servo from an exit point?”
He also questioned what impact this would have on fuel tankers needing to access the station and alleged it could cause safety risks for motorists if cars were to be banked up along Main North Road as a result.
“If the fuel trucks come in from (Main North Road) they are going to be facing an uphill battle to get into the position they need to get to the tanks,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of space and I can’t really see a fuel truck doing a U-turn up Potts Road and then coming back in.
“The fuel trucks, if they have got to go in that way, they’ll have to try and manoeuvre around which will be holding cars up.”
A Department for Infrastructure and Transport spokesperson said the raised central median was installed for “safety reasons”.
“Particularly to mitigate the risk of collisions caused by vehicles queuing to turn right from Potts Road into the service station,” they said.
“On The Run has been consulted throughout the process, with the raised central median completed after the link road was opened to traffic to minimise business disruption during the Gawler East Link Road project.”