FUNDING must be allocated in the state budget to duplicate key roads in Point Cook, the RACV says.
The peak motoring group used its budget submission to call on the state government to increase its roads funding, particularly in Point Cook. It stated the 2012 budget provided “inadequate funding to maintain the state-funded road network” and the 2013-14 budget must allow for an improvement in the condition of roads.
The RACV has urged the government to upgrade three roads which topped its red spot survey last year.
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Among them is Point Cook Road, which the survey named as the third-most congested road. The RACV wants the government to duplicate the road south of Dunnings Road.
“Continuing development in the Point Cook Road corridor is generating traffic that clearly exceeds the capacity of the existing transport infrastructure,” the submission stated.
A Wyndham Council survey of road traffic volumes found that more 25,000 vehicles use Point Cook Road each day.
The RACV has also asked the government to consider duplicating Dunnings Road from Point Cook Road to Palmers Road, and Palmers Road from Dunnings Road to Geelong Road.
Point Cook Action Group president Nick Michaelides said the RACV’s plans were a small step in the right direction but were nowhere near what was required.
“Nothing less than full duplication of Point Cook Road from Sanctuary Lakes with a direct on ramp to the freeway will suffice. When I moved here seven years ago, I used to leave home at 7.30am to get to work in the CBD by 9am. Now I am leaving at 6.30am in order to ensure I get a parking spot at Laverton station and to be sure that I am at work by 9am. This is all because of the gridlock on Point Cook Road.”
Mr Michaelides said an outer western suburbs transport strategy in April 2000 had called on the government to duplicate Point Cook Road.
Roads Minister Terry Mulder did not respond before the Weekly went to press.
