A Labor government will introduce truck bans in the inner west to ensure trucks use the proposed West Gate Distributor, Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews has vowed.
The $500 million flagship project – Labor’s alternative to the East West Link – would be a toll-road linking the port to the West Gate Freeway to remove an estimated 5000 trucks a day from the West Gate Bridge.
Mr Andrews said expressions of interest would go to the market by the end of January and work would begin next year.
The project would be completed by 2018 and remove some of the 20,000 trucks using inner west residential streets each day.
Mr Andrews told Star Weekly truck drivers would be made to use the new road rather than cut through inner-west streets.
“We will be prepared to look at the ways in which we can, if you like, force trucks to use that route,” he said.
The project, backed by the Greens, would include new West Gate Freeway on-and-off ramps, an elevated road along Hyde Street in Yarraville, duplication of Whitehall Street between Francis Street and Somerville Road, and strengthening of Shepherd Bridge.
“This is about getting trucks off local streets – it’s about ending the rat running that’s been occurring too long,” Mr Andrews said.
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Samantha McArthur welcomed the promise, citing CityLink as an example of a toll road that hadn’t helped the inner-west truck problem.
“We’ve always said it has to go hand in hand with legislative changes that say inner-west roads are not truck roads,” she said. “Most people agree there needs to be an infrastructure solution, but it’s also behavioural.”
Victorian Transport Association incoming chief executive Peter Anderson said the association saw benefits and negatives in the proposed West Gate Distributor.
Mr Andrews told Star Weekly“Pros include that it may reduce rat running on local streets and may remove up to 5000 trucks a day off the [West Gate] bridge,” he said. “Cons include more tolls for motorists, and it may create a bottleneck in the vicinity of the Williamstown Road interchange.”
