By Charlene Macaulay
Wyndham council has admitted “there is no reasonable excuse” for lengthy and costly delays on the Tarneit Road upgrade.
The $6 million project – which will include an extra lane in each direction between Hogans Road and Caraleena Drive, traffic lights at the Good News Lutheran College entrance, and a doubling in the size of the Tarneit and Hogans roads intersection – was originally slated for completion by October 2017, and has since missed a number of revised deadlines.
In a post on its Wyndham City Living Facebook page last week, the council said it had met with the contractor managing the upgrade earlier this month and was told that asphalting should be complete by the end of last week and the hardware for the traffic lights will be installed by mid-February.
It is then up to VicRoads and Powercor to turn on the lights, which is expected to happen in April.
“Motorists have been rightly frustrated by the ongoing delays and our dissatisfaction continues to be conveyed to the contractor,” the post read.
“Whilst the project is complex, there is no reasonable excuse for the contractor to not have completed the works.
“It’s fair to say we are extremely disappointed at how long it has taken.”
Wyndham council has said the delays will “result in additional costs” for the council, which have yet to be finalised.
Meanwhile, construction on the $11.5 million Armstrong Road project, which provides a connection between Greens and Blackforest roads, is now complete, with minor works such as public lighting and signal works being finalised before the new road is open to the public.
Wyndham council mayor Mia Shaw said the sealing of Boundary Road between Derrimut Road and the Regional Rail Link overpass was on track for completion in March 2019, while the duplication of Forsyth Road between Old Geelong and Sayers roads will be ready by mid-2019.
