By Benjamin Millar
Year-long road closures triggered by construction of the West Gate Tunnel toll road are shifting hundreds of trucks on to residential roads, creating congestion and disrupting sleep.
North-bound trucks are being redirected from Whitehall Street to Hyde Street in Yarraville as part of work to relocate a sewer to accommodate the $6.7 billion road project, scheduled to open in 2022.
Hyde Street has long had curfews banning trucks from using the street, one of the reasons Nikolas Brudenell and his family moved there more than 18 months ago.
Mr Brudenell said that since the detour started forcing trucks past their home, his two children are being woken by truck traffic nearly every night and struggling to get back to sleep.
“I go out at 4am or 5am and find my son is up because he was woken by the trucks,” he said.
“It’s happening most nights and we’re just not getting enough sleep.”
Despite the impact, the government has so far refused to double glaze Mr Brudenell’s apartment windows.
Mr Brudenell said some residents had been given double glazing, but told not to tell their neighbours it was being provided.
He said the roadworks, which are sending more than 5000 extra vehicles down his street every day, are causing long traffic snarls that can make it almost impossible to get out of his driveway in the morning.
Mr Brudenell said he was not against the project, but questioned whether there had been adequate consultation regarding the impact of roadworks on the surrounding community.
Don’t Destroy Millers Road spokesman Chris Dunlevy said Millers Road in Brooklyn had become “a nightmare” since pre-construction work had begun.
“It has been getting busier for years now, but not to this extreme,” he said.
“If you get it at the wrong time it will take up to 12 minutes to travel less than 800 metres.”
Spotswood and South Kingsville Residents Group’s Rosa McKenna said multiple detours were causing havoc and night works to widen the West Gate Freeway were “incredibly noisy”.
A spokesman for Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said the authority overseeing the project was working with residents to reduce the effects of extra noise.
– with The Age
