BY NATALIE GALLENTI
MOTORISTS in Brimbank’s north west can breathe a sigh of relief, after the Federal Government last week announced a multi-million dollar project would finish ahead of schedule and under-budget.
The upgrade to the intersection between the Calder Freeway and Kings Rd at Taylors Lakes will now be completed before Christmas, six months ahead of schedule and under-budget, allowing the savings to be used to deliver a more extensive upgrade than originally anticipated.
Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the Federal and State Governments were working together to build and modernise roads that families and businesses across Melbourne’s West relied on in their daily lives.
“The savings will be used to do even more locally, including safety improvements at the intersection between the Calder Freeway and Sunshine Ave.”
Gorton MP Brendan O’Connor welcomed the news and said the work would ease congestion and improve safety around an intersection, which in recent years had been the scene of countless serious accidents.
“This is the culmination of a community and political campaign started more than five years ago to see the project funded and completed.”
The Calder Freeway/Kings Rd Interchange project includes building an overpass on the Freeway, installing new on/off ramps and duplicating Kings Rd between Melton Highway and the Calder.
The new additional work will be undertaken between February and June of next year, and includes extending an access road linking Highland and Oakbank roads to the new Kings Rd interchange; and upgrading the Sunshine Ave and Calder Freeway intersection.
Keilor MP Natalie Hutchins said the announcement was a victory for a community that had been plagued by significant road safety concerns.
“In 2010, I surveyed the residents of the electorate of Keilor about the issues of importance to them; roads and traffic flow was the number one local problem identified in 90 per cent of the surveys returned,” Ms Hutchins said.
“In recent weeks, I have sent out the 2011 residents’ survey, to date I have received about one hundred surveys back, and again roads and local traffic is still a very significant issue in the local area.”
David Anderson, secretary of the Delahey Action Group, said the community was pleased that the project would be completed so quickly.
However, he said, both the Federal and State Governments, along with VicRoads, needed to put the unspent funds to better use.
Mr Anderson said the intersection of Kings and Taylors roads was an accident waiting to happen, and called for the round-about be removed and traffic lights installed.
