Thursday, 17 October 2024

Donnybrook Road duplication

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (19:05): (1202) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action that I seek is for the minister to prioritise the duplication of the C723, Donnybrook Road, including the duplication of the flyover bridge over the Hume Freeway. I recently met with a group of constituents from one of the new housing estates along Donnybrook Road, who told me about their deep frustration with the lack of progress on upgrading the road. This is an area that is exploding in population, where the government has allowed and encouraged significant new housing developments without first putting in the necessary infrastructure to handle the extra people and traffic.

The exit lane from the Hume Freeway onto Donnybrook Road is chronically congested. Traffic leaving the freeway drives around the Shell service station to join Donnybrook Road, where those travelling east must squeeze into a single lane in order to go over the single-lane flyover bridge and join the single-lane road to the east, but at peak hour it is far too congested to flow quickly, and traffic is forced to back up in a long line stretching all the way back and sometimes onto the freeway. This is incredibly dangerous, and there have been many accidents at this spot. Some locals now use Brookville Drive to avoid the Donnybrook Road exit, which forces risky manoeuvres when they try to rejoin Donnybrook Road.

Residents are desperate to see significant improvements in the local roads before the new growth makes the area completely unlivable during peak-hour traffic. There are already nine housing estates along Donnybrook Road, and with more scheduled to begin traffic is only set to get worse. Donnybrook Road is a primary thoroughfare for residents travelling to work and school and provides vital connections for the community and emergency services. It is simply intolerable that this single-lane road and flyover are expected to handle the exponential growth that the government is targeting for the area.

You might think that public transport options could help alleviate some of the issues with car traffic. Well, Donnybrook train station recently received an upgrade, in 2023, and should be handling more passengers and taking traffic off the road, but how are residents of the new housing estates supposed to get there? There are no buses going along Donnybrook Road for residents of the new estates to catch to the train station. There is also no bus going to the primary school. You might think that if there is no bus, at least they can walk or ride a bicycle to the station. You would be wrong, as there is no continuous footpath going along Donnybrook Road from the new estates to the train station and the busy, narrow single-lane road is extremely dangerous for both cyclists and pedestrians.

These issues have become a frequent topic of discussion at community meetings, and residents have tried to raise awareness but the Labor government is just not listening. I call on the Minister for Roads and Road Safety to take immediate steps to address these concerns and to prioritise the duplication of Donnybrook Road.