FUNDING for the mooted Truck Action Plan for the inner west must be the state government’s top priority in next month’s budget, according to Williamstown MP Wade Noonan.
Mr Noonan is calling on the government to use the budget to build a bypass road connecting the Port of Melbourne and the West Gate Freeway, redirecting thousands of trucks away from inner-west residential streets.
Mr Noonan hopes to address Parliament this week to press the point, made in his budget submission to the Victorian Treasurer, that heavy freight movement is the area’s most pressing infrastructure challenge.
“Our area simply can’t sustain the enormous growth that the Port of Melbourne is experiencing without building the necessary road infrastructure to redirect trucks away from residential streets,” he said. “Without the Truck Action Plan, I think we could reasonably predict that the number of truck movements through the inner west each day will increase to around 50,000 by 2030.”
Maribyrnong Council has also thrown its weight behind the proposal, coming out in support of last month’s protest rally that closed the busy Shepherd Bridge during morning peak hour.
Mayor Catherine Cumming said the government must take urgent action to fix the problem of increasing truck numbers.
“There are now 20,000 trucks driving through our city daily, and numbers are expected to quadruple in 25 years.”
Cr Cumming said truck access ramps off the West Gate Freeway at Hyde Street would allow the Port of Melbourne to grow while reducing large trucks in residential streets. — Benjamin Millar
