Future upgrades to Nolan Street to cope with a major increase in traffic remain unclear despite consortium Pellicano this week releasing detailed plans for the Ballarat Station Precinct.
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The road is set to become the major entry point for two car parks, with both the multi-storey commuter park and the convention centre park to be most easily accessed by the northern street.
A new internal road will be developed to link Nolan and Lydiard streets, which will become council property when the project is completed.
The 2014 Ballarat Station Precinct Master Plan stated upgrades would need to be made to Nolan Street.
While preliminary site investigations have been undertaken by traffic engineering consultants, neither the City of Ballarat or the state government are yet to reveal what changes will be made.
City of Ballarat infrastructure and environment director Terry Demeo said council considered any works on the road relating to the project to be the responsibility of the government.
The road does fall under council jurisdiction rather than VicRoads, meaning council would require funding from the state government for any works to be undertaken.
“As any works required in Nolan Street will be generated by the station precinct development, it is considered that those works should be funded as part of the project,’ Mr Demeo said in a statement.
“Given the various site limitation...of the proposed intersection of Nolan Street with the main access road into the station precinct development, installation of traffic signals is the preferred option.”
The street has already experienced a significant increase in traffic in 2017 through the change to the Ballarat bus network which now directs all domestic buses to the Ballarat Station via Lydiard Street.
This will increase again when the new $5 million bus interchange is developed within the station precinct, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
In May a government spokesperson said “detailed design for the new bus interchange has started (and) this work will look at the infrastructure required for the new interchange and what traffic changes and improvements are needed,” however the government is yet to release the plans for the interchange.
The interchange was announced separately to the remainder of the development.