Emmanuel College Warrnambool to create new entrance to campus for school drop offs and pickups, as part of masterplan
A Warrnambool school is aiming to reduce traffic and increase student safety as part of a raft of major redevelopment plans. See what is on the cards.
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A Warrnambool principal hopes to solve traffic woes created by the school run with a plan to move the drop off and pick up zone.
Emmanuel College principal Peter Morgan said the school’s current Botanic Rd entrance could get busy at peak times.
With student numbers expected to increase in future, part of the school’s $81m decade-long masterplan approved by Warrnambool City Council earlier this month includes creating a new entrance on Hopetoun Rd, beside Botanic Rd.
Mr Morgan said this would reduce congestion but also ensure students aren’t stepping into traffic on Botanic Rd and Ardlie St.
“It will definitely enhance the safety of the young people — they will be catching buses or being picked up and dropped off by family members,” Mr Morgan said.
He said the main benefit would be improving the traffic flow separating school traffic from through traffic.
“The congestion on Botanic Rd during the morning drop off and the afternoon pickup is extreme — the volume of traffic is substantial because whilst Emmanuel College is positioned here, we need to remember there are other schools that are quite close by,” Mr Morgan said.
“There’s also traffic to and from those locations as well, with families in some cases taking a member of the family to the primary school and then coming here to drop somebody off at the secondary school or vice versa.
“There’s a lot of very slow movement and backup of traffic that occurs to get through roundabouts and intersections.”
A Warrnambool mother, who waited to pick up her son from the school and asked not to be named, agreed the new entrance would “relieve the traffic rush”.
“It would create a safer environment for everyone, making it easier and smoother for students to get to and from their education,” the woman said.
“School drop offs and pickups are always quite frantic, as many people are all trying to get in at once.
“If there’s a way to reduce that, then I am happy with an alternative entrance.”
Emmanuel College’s masterplan has been developed with five stages, but Mr Morgan said all five stages could only be guaranteed if the first - the $16m Year 9 centre - is completed before the beginning of the 2025 school year.
“Our priority and our focus at the moment is the development of the Edmund Rice Centre,” Mr Morgan said.
“The subsequent stages of the masterplan respond to the overall increase in student numbers on this campus and upgrading older facilities to reflect on more contemporary modes of learning and to improve the overall amenity of the school.”
But he said a key driver of the masterplan was separating traffic and students.
“In terms of our campus in the future we want to separate the movement of people around the school and the movement of vehicles,” he said.
“We are also looking to further enhance the site with landscaping, gardening and vegetation.”
Stage two could include the development of a new teaching wing, a shared collaboration space and food technology spaces.
Stage three could include a two-storey senior learning and arts centre, stage four considers a new car park and the final stage could include a health and wellbeing precinct with a possible 50-metre swimming pool.
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