A NEW petition will push for funding in the May state budget to fix Point Cook’s choked arterial roads and ease the morning commute.
Altona MP Jill Hennessy has organised the petition which calls for duplication of Point Cook Road, a peak-hour bottleneck which carries more than 21,000 vehicles a day.
Ms Hennessy said “not one dollar” was allocated in last year’s state budget for much-needed road improvements in Point Cook.
“Residents are rightly frustrated at being gridlocked in local streets at peak times.
“Mums and dads commuting to work or ferrying children to school should not have to put up with the current situation, which is growing worse by the day,” she said.
Point Cook resident Louise Shaw said the government needed to realise how stressful and unnecessarily time-consuming it was to exit Point Cook due to worsening road congestion.
“We are trapped and being suffocated by the freeway,” she said.
“Kids are having to be dropped off as soon as day care centres open at 6.30 and being left until 6.30 [at night].
“My partner can get to his office in Ballarat quicker than he can get to his Melbourne CBD office, despite it being four times the distance.”
As reported by the Weekly, VicRoads has no current plans to duplicate Point Cook Road.
Acting regional director Damien Afxentis said major road works had been undertaken in the past 10 years to cater for population growth in the booming suburb.
Projects have included upgrading Geelong Road, extending Palmers Road, and extending and duplicating Derrimut, Fitzgerald and Boundary roads.
“Point Cook is one of the fastest-growing communities in Melbourne’s western outskirts,” Mr Afxentis said.
“Residents of Point Cook and surrounding areas will get a direct link to Williams Landing station, and a $24million project will extend Palmers Road overpass beyond the Princes Freeway and across the Werribee rail line.”
