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CONGESTION on Wyndham’s roads continues to worsen five years after the council identified five key arterial roads as being over capacity.
In 2010, that figure grew to 11 and last year the council identified 18 key roads at capacity.
The council says VicRoads, which is responsible for most of the choked arterials, has failed to upgrade them to ease the congestion.
The council’s 2011 traffic volumes report, released last week, revealed the extent of Wyndham’s traffic pain.
The report stated that Forsyth, Old Geelong, Sayers, Derrimut and Point Cook roads were all over capacity, while sections of the Princes Highway, Morris, Ballan, Heaths, Palmers and Dohertys roads were at capacity.
Wyndham’s busiest arterial was Forsyth Road, south of Geelong Road. Last year it
carried 42,670 vehicles a day.
Old Geelong Road (at Dunlop Road), Sayers Road (west of Marquands Road), Derrimut Road (north of Sayers Road), Morris Road
(between Heaths and Hogans roads) and the Princes Highway (east of Derrimut Road) were identified as operating at capacity for the past five years. The report called on VicRoads to provide urgent funding to upgrade sections of Forsyth, Sayers, Point Cook, Heaths and Derrimut roads.
Mayor Kim McAliney said the report’s findings would not come as a surprise to residents, who were often forced to sit in traffic jams.
She accused VicRoads and the state government of continuing to ignore Wyndham’s failing road infrastructure.
“The number of at-capacity roads in Wyndham is growing as we continue to increase the number of residents calling our city home,” she said.
“VicRoads needs to act now to address the growing number of sites experiencing traffic congestion in our municipality and to undertake works where the road is expected to reach capacity in the next few years.”
Point Cook resident Miriam Spiess said it regularly took her 45 minutes to exit the suburb. She said limited exits from Point Cook and its growing population meant her husband was rarely home from work in the city in time to see their children before they went to bed.
She urged Wyndham residents to write to the government and VicRoads to make them aware of the human impact of their “poor decision making”.
VicRoads regional director Nial Finegan said a number of locations in Wyndham, including Derrimut, Old Geelong and Forsyth roads, had been identified for future funding. He did not answer questions about why roads previously identified as being at capacity had not
been upgraded.
