Barry Watson
| The previous 5 km extension of the Eastern Freeway from Doncaster Road
to Springvale Road has caused traffic volumes on the Kew section of the
older freeway to double. The early morning bank-up now usually starts around
Bulleen Road. Evening peak-hour usually finds that arterial roads feeding
the freeway at the city end are choked.
The question must be asked: will the same scenario be repeated if the freeway is extended another 5 km to Ringwood? At this point in time, no study has been done to determine whether the road will be functional or whether total gridlock will occur at the city end. The Carr Marshall Day noise report for the Eastern Freeway Stage 2, Table 1, shows predicted traffic volumes for the year 2001. The freeway total traffic volumes at Doncaster Road shown in Table 1 are 78,000 per day (18 hrs). These volumes are already being exceeded in 1999 by about 30 %. Table 1 also shows predicted traffic volumes at on/off ramps for the year 2001 of 6,650 vehicles (18 hrs) west of Middleborough Road. Counting documents show 17,164 vehicles (24 hrs) in 1998. In understating traffic volumes, VicRoads’ studies on the pollution effects of the freeway are understated and misleading. VicRoads acknowledge that their predicted traffic volumes are wrong and that they will be recalculated. The greater fear is that if the freeway is extended to Ringwood, an even greater volume of trucks will travel at night to avoid City Link tolls. There will also be an attraction for traffic south of Ringwood to take the longer route to the city, via Ringwood, to avoid the tolls. Now that the Scoresby Freeway is on hold an updated impact study is required for Ringwood. |