Clogged road in councils’ sights

Point Cook Road. Picture: RACV

 

A Seabrook road has been named one of the state’s worst for the third year running.

The RACV Redspot survey ranks Point Cook Road, between Sneydes Road and the Princes Freeway, as number seven on the list of the state’s 10 most congested roads.

This stretch of road falls under Hobsons Bay council but is also a main thoroughfare for Wyndham residents.

“Making it to the top 10 for the third survey in a row, it’s clear that traffic on Point Cook Road is going nowhere fast,” a survey report states.

“The new Sneydes Road interchange is too far west for many people close to Point Cook Road. However, it is understood that VicRoads is investigating upgrading the Point Cook Road/Princes Freeway interchange.”

VicRoads did not answer Star Weekly’s specific questions about the possible upgrade.

VicRoads improvement projects manager for the north-west region Sohail Muhammad said the organisation had been “working closely with key stakeholders on a number of important transport improvement projects that will deliver benefits right across Wyndham”.

Wyndham council transport portfolio- holder Glenn Goodfellow said he was not surprised to see that the stretch of Point Cook Road had again made the ‘10 worst’ list.

Cr Goodfellow confirmed that a joint Wyndham-Hobsons Bay councils’ proposal seeking to alleviate traffic congestion on Point Cook Road leading to the freeway had been forwarded to VicRoads.

“The Wyndham council part [of Point Cook Road] has been duplicated; it’s the part beyond that which needs work,” Cr Goodfellow said.

“But you can’t just duplicate that road and have a bottleneck in the shopping strip leading onto the freeway.

“Instead of the road going up and over the bridge and going through [Laverton] to get onto the freeway, there have been concepts done with VicRoads to see if we could realign all that straight onto the freeway.

“It’s the flow onto the freeway that’s the hold-up going through that area.”