Wyndham council has demanded the state government provide funding to duplicate the city’s gridlocked roads, saying congestion has become “totally intolerable”.
The council’s 2013 traffic volumes report, released on Monday night, revealed 21 of the city’s arterial roads are at, or over, capacity.
Fifteen of these roads are the responsibility of VicRoads and were considered to be at capacity in 2012.
Forsyth Road, south of Old Geelong Road, was the city’s most congested arterial for the third year in a row, carrying 39,900 vehicles a day. A two-lane road is considered to be at capacity if it carries more than 18,000 vehicles a day. Four-lane roads have a capacity of 35,000 vehicles.
Leakes Road had the greatest increase in traffic over the past 12 months, with volumes rising 21 per cent.
Cr John Gibbons said congestion on Wyndham’s roads had become so bad that it regularly took him 40 minutes to travel to work in Truganina from his house in Hoppers Crossing. “I think the traffic around us has become unbelievable and is totally intolerable.”
Cr Glenn Goodfellow said it took him 43 minutes to travel along Derrimut Road to reach Monday night’s council meeting. The journey used to take 10 minutes. “This really highlights the need for the government to step up to the plate now and act urgently to fund road infrastructure for our most congested roads,” he said.
“It is disappointing when you get a typical road built for 18,000-20,000 vehicle movements per day and we are getting in excess of 38,000 vehicle movements a day.”
Cr Goodfellow accused the government of giving the council “drips and drabs” to fix unnecessary roads.
VicRoads’ north-west director, Patricia Liew, said the organisation was aware of changing traffic patterns and volumes in Wyndham. “Future improvements to the arterial road network in Wyndham will be made in the context of the outcomes of the metropolitan planning strategy [Plan Melbourne],” she said.
“VicRoads has prepared a business case for the duplication of the 3.6-kilometre section of Dohertys Road between Fitzgerald Road and Grieve Parade.
“The proposal will be submitted for funding consideration under a future program.”
