By Benjamin Millar
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan is demanding a permanent ban on non-local trucks using residential inner-west streets if the proposed Western Distributor is built.
Mr Noonan said his support for Transurban’s proposal was conditional on roads such as Francis Street and Somerville Road being restricted around the clock to local traffic.
Technology, such as number plate recognition, would need to be installed to catch and fine drivers of non-local trucks rat-running through residential streets, he added. The Western Distributor proposal includes widening of the West Gate Freeway from the M80 Ring Road to the West Gate Bridge, as well as new twin 2.5-kilometre tunnels under Yarraville and an elevated motorway across the Maribyrnong River connecting with CityLink and the CBD.
Mr Noonan said careful placement of tunnel emission towers would be vital and noise walls along the West Gate corridor would need replacing to protect nearby residents from traffic noise.
A Transurban spokeswoman said truck bans would be a matter for the state government, but discussions were under way with the transport industry to ensure the new motorway would provide an attractive alternative route.
Western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland, who has long campaigned for tougher inner-west truck bans, last Wednesday backed an opposition motion calling for the Western Distributor project to go before a parliamentary committee.
She told Parliament she had concerns about the transparency of Victoria’s major projects.
“Unless there is an actual truck ban in the area, those container trucks will continue to travel through it. At this stage, we don’t have any proof that these things will happen.”
Ms Hartland will be joined on June 16 by speakers from the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group and Public Transport Not Traffic at a community forum at VU MetroWest, 138 Nicholson Street, Footscray, 7-8.30pm. Transurban will hold information sessions at Scienceworks, Spotswood, from 5-8pm on June 11, and at Footscray Community Arts Centre, 9am-1pm, on June 13.
