“If people affected have experienced issues with the construction of the West Gate Tunnel Project,I encourage them to get in contact with my office.”
Williamstown Road resident Graeme Hammond,who was part of a working group contributing to the corridor study,said the government hasn’t committed to any of the traffic solutions explored in the study,which he said must be publicly released.
He said viable diversion for trucks in Melbourne’s inner-west was needed to link the port to Tottenham’s industrial precinct via Grieve Parade in Altona North or Paramount Road in Tottenham.
“I think overall the West Gate Tunnel was a really good idea to get trucks out of the inner-west,but they did half a job because they’ve left trucks running down Williamstown Road through a residential area by not creating a proper diversion,” Mr Hammond said.
The toll road is backed by the trucking and logistics industries,as it will create new access to the Port of Melbourne,relieving congestion around the port and the chronically bottlenecked West Gate Bridge.
Peter Anderson,the head of trucking lobby group Victorian Transport Association,said the tunnel would remove a number of “hurdles” for trucks accessing the port.
“The port is central to the quality of life that we all enjoy,our goods come through the port ... it has a major economic benefit to the people of Victoria for it to work efficiently.”
He agreed that Williamstown Road was inappropriate for trucks and called for support on an alternate route that bypassed residential streets and said the government hadturned down a proposal for 24/7 curfews on Williamstown Road.
Kathleen,who lives on Williamstown Road in Seddon,said Williamstown Road — which is lined with heritage-listed houses and surrounded by a school,tennis courts and ovals — was simply an inappropriate truck route.
The resident who did not wish to have her surname published,said the expected spike in trucks would make the road unsafe and more polluted in areas thatalready have state’s highest rates of asthma in children.
Her family has lived in the area for three generations and said the same improvements being pushed more than a decade ago by residents were still not being enforced.
Loading
“How does the government listen? By building the toll road that doesn’t solve the problem,it just shuffles it around,” she said.
A government spokeswoman said the department was engaging with the community and industry about improvements to transport in the inner-west.
The area would be prioritised as a ‘test-bed’ for clean energy truck technology trials,while the West Gate Tunnel project was overseeing ongoing air quality monitoring.
Ten million dollars in taxpayer-funded grants would also allow for new cycling and walking paths,parks,wetlands and planting of 17,000 trees in areas surrounding the road project.
“We’re working to minimise the impact of heavy vehicles by investing in a number of strategies to take trucks off local streets and encourage more freight onto rail,” a government spokeswoman said.
“We’re delivering on the requirements of the Environment Effects Statement – the Millers Road and Williamstown Road Corridor Study Working Group met a number of times in 2018 and 2019 and its work is now complete.
“The ideas and suggestions put forward by the Working Group will inform future development planning for the Williamstown Road and Millers Road corridors as well as the broader network. There was no requirement whatsoever to release the corridor study.”
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.