An Eye on Trail Safety

Seeking to improve facilities along the O’Keefe Rail Trail has the community group Friends of the Bendigo-Kilmore Rail Trail keeping an eye on this 49km trail’s condition.  

As trail users, the group’s members provide first hand feedback to the trail manager, the City of Greater Bendigo council, on improvements or maintenance required to keep this as being one of the iconic rail trails in Victoria.

One such feedback request to council was to reduce a hazard and so improve the safety of using the trail’s Bobs St ‘tunnel’, where the trail route goes through part of a 19^th century brick constructed railway culvert. This request suggested installing a convex mirror at each access point to the underpass, to alert trail users of other approaching cyclists, runners and walkers.

After an on-site inspection, council staff responded positively to the request by having two such mirrors installed.

Caution is still required by trail users when traveling through the ‘tunnel’, while being amazed by this heritage structure at the same time, with these mirrors now providing a safer environment for this popular public rail trail.