By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG City Council has vowed to pull out all the stops to get trucks off residential streets once and for all.
The council will hike up its attempts to get the State Government moving on key transport projects like the Truck Action Plan after traffic counts jointly undertaken by the city and VicRoads have shown increased traffic volumes across the board.
On Somerville Rd, east of Williamstown Rd, truck traffic has surged by 30 per cent in the past year during curfew times, while on Moore St there has been a nine per cent increase in trucks roaring through during curfew periods.
In the busiest part of Francis St, east of Williamstown Rd, traffic numbers have risen by 10 per cent in the overall daily figures in the nine years since the traffic counts have been running – but truck traffic is down 15 per cent.
Over on Buckley St, truck traffic has dropped 32 per cent during curfew times.
The curfew applies to trucks exceeding 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass and operates along Francis St, Somerville Rd and Williamstown Rd between 8pm and 6am Monday to Saturday and 1pm Saturday to 6am Monday.
The curfew does not apply to trucks travelling to local destinations.
Councillor John Cumming said it was a great disappointment that the Truck Action Plan was not yet coming to fruition when the council was doing its bit by conducting truck counts and noise monitoring.
The council is still waiting on responses from the State Transport Minister, Health Minister and Environment and Climate Change Minister.
