Is this Sydney’s worst roundabout? Drivers perplexed by bizarre new intersection

A new roundabout in Sydney’s south-west is causing chaos after decision makers seemingly missed the memo that the intersections usually work best when they are round.

It’s in the name after all, but a roundabout that opened in Austral last week is in the shape of a diamond.

Aerial footage of the intersection of Twenty-Eighth Avenue and Fifteenth Avenue shows one driver in a ute doing a three-point turn to navigate the narrow corner of the diamond.

Moments later, two cars appear not to understand the intersection is supposed to operate as a roundabout, cutting across the diamond-shaped markings on the road completely.

It would be comical if it weren’t so dangerous.

It is one of several roundabouts installed in Austral in the past month, following a Liverpool Council petition to the state government that called for “urgent upgrades” to the “chronically congested” Fifteenth Avenue.

More than 2000 people had signed the petition, and a response was provided by NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison on Tuesday.

Aitchison noted work was “taking place to improve congestion, access and safety for road users on Fifteenth Avenue and surrounding roads”.

“These safety improvements will reduce congestion and benefit all road users.”

But it seems the rushed “diamond-about” has only worsened the congestion, as drivers must slow to a crawl to navigate the unusual intersection.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Chris Minns committed $1 billion to a major upgrade of Fifteenth Avenue in January.

The roundabout was approved by Transport for NSW and a traffic committee, with the minutes of the latter meeting being endorsed by the Liverpool City Council.

Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun said it seemed “no one applied common sense” in the decision-making process.

“The staff responsible have made some design changes that they intend on implementing as soon as possible,” Mannoun said.

“They will be putting the ’round’ back into ‘roundabout’.”

Liverpool City Councillor Peter Ristevski, who is a critic of Mannoun, told Nine’s Today the roundabout was “quite embarrassing”, after host Karl Stefanovic congratulated him for building “Australia’s worst roundabout”.

“I’ve asked for an investigation into this and in particular what it’s going to cost us to rectify this,” Ristevski said, alluding to the local council’s financial difficulties.

“My inbox last night was bombarded with 200 to 300 responses saying, ‘what is going on? You guys can’t even build a roundabout’. They’ve pretty much lost confidence in the council and which is very concerning at the moment.”