Wednesday, 4 October 2023

Adjournment

Melba Highway

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (19:00): (351) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. It is well known and well documented that the Melba Highway continues to cause problems for road users, with the biggest problem at the moment being the traffic light which has been installed where one lane has been closed at Gordons Bridge between Castella and Glenburn. The action I seek is for the minister to implement more effective traffic management controls on this section of the Melba Highway. While the road needs to be fixed urgently and reopened, the current traffic light system that is in place is not working during peak periods. These are the periods of the highest demand, and the worst is on weekends and particularly on a long weekend.

By way of background, a massive pothole opened up, and it was not your regular pothole. This was deep, and people could put their arm down underneath the pothole and it could disappear into the road, which is actually what happened, and it was recorded and circulated quite widely on social media. There was some very quick action taken. One section of the road was closed, so we have one lane, and a traffic light was installed. It looked as though things happened very quickly in those first few days, but after five weeks or so there has been no evidence of any activity. No-one is sure whether the road has been fixed or not, but what we do know is the problems that the traffic light system has caused for drivers on one of the busiest roads and freight routes in the area. This traffic light is generating a lot of negativity and community dissatisfaction. On the long weekend, for example, the wait time at the traffic light for a 300- or 400-metre section was 1½ hours, and it banked back 10 kilometres. This is pretty extraordinary for people who are returning to Melbourne, typically tourists that have been enjoying the wonderful Murrindindi and Mansfield shires, to get held up for an hour and a half coming back to Melbourne. This has happened each weekend – not quite to the same extent, but this has happened each weekend, and it was always going to happen. This would be predictable, but the traffic light that is there is equal in both directions. It needs to cater for, if in one direction the traffic is really heavy, to give that a longer period. People are going bananas about it. I get text messages from people in the traffic or going in the opposite direction. I get emails; we get phone calls to the office. It is really difficult for people to manage at the moment. I do not think an hour and a half is acceptable to be waiting at a traffic light at all. So I ask the minister to look at the traffic management system that is in place at the moment and make sure the road is fixed really promptly, but we need to have a better solution certainly at those peak times, because it is driving people bananas.