Neville call for review of plan for section to have arterial rather than freeway status
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | August 26, 2013
A Geelong Labor MP has called for an urgent review of the Victorian Government’s decision to build a section of Geelong Ring Road as an arterial road, saying trucks will use local streets if such plan goes ahead.
Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville believes the two-lane way known as 4C between Anglesea Road and Surf Coast Highway will slow traffic and deter people from using the road if it’s not up to freeway standards.
“The Ring Road has been a boon for the Geelong economy and was a great investment by the Bracks and Brumby governments in securing the future of the region,” Neville told the Victorian Parliament during a recent sitting.
“The next stage, 4C, which is the link to the Surf Coast Highway, will continue to strengthen the benefits for Geelong.
“However, if it is built as an arterial road and not a freeway, the economic and amenity benefits to the community will be seriously undermined,” she says.
The local council has been working on removing trucks from the district but if the section is an arterial road, trucks will then be back on roads, Neville says.
“Trucks will not use an arterial road that offers them no more benefit in savings of time and fuel than existing routes.
“What we are likely to see as the trucks are moved out of the CBD is that they will use the Breakwater Bridge area, then pushing trucks past local residents in Whittington, St Albans Park and Breakwater and impacting significantly on the amenity of that area.”
