By Sahar Foladi
Businesses in Progress Street Dandenong will be forced down what they say is a dangerous temporary detour during a level-crossing closure project.
Ahead of the works to build a road bridge connecting Fowler Road and Progress Street, more than 5,000 trucks, A Doubles, B Doubles, Australia Post vehicles and cars will be diverted down the narrow Hallam Valley Road.
This temporary solution is despite the frustration from nearby businesses as demonstrated by the 765-signature petition tabled in State Parliament.
Andrew Hamer, managing director of Pakaflex located on Progress Street, has been advocating against the level-crossing closure as the group’s spokesperson.
“If Fowler Road is unworkable and a disaster, Hallam Valley Road is ten times worse.
“You have two bad features of Hallam Valley Road, the first is the intersection at the end of the road to South Gippsland Highway.
“The other is the hump bridge that is not wide enough for two trucks to pass on each side.”
The project’s authority LXRP has not stated the duration of the temporary route. But Mr Hamer believes the detour will run for six months.
“The LXRP will continue to keep the community and nearby businesses up to date as the project progresses,” an LXRP spokesperson said.
“LXRP has conducted safety assessments on this project and will continue to do so throughout the planning, construction and completion phases, with the design ultimately endorsed by the road management authority.
“The project will ensure the temporary detour arrangements will be both safe and functional to the satisfaction of the road management authority.”
The timing of the closure is yet to be finalised.
It’s unclear whether the Australia Post sorting centre’s private emergency exit will be used as part of the detour onto Hallam Valley Road.
“Australia Post has raised concerns around the proposed temporary detour and requested further information from LXRP on how traffic safety and congestion will be managed,” an Australia Post spokesperson said.
“As always the safety of our people is our primary concern including the movement of vehicles from our facility onto surrounding roads both during and after construction.”
Yugo Driving School located on Hallam Valley Road provides driving lessons to trucks, A doubles, B Doubles and semi-trailers.
Its director Rebecca Radisavljevic said they’d only found out about this solution from Mr Hamer and questioned how this road was able to take on extra load as the industrial area is busy as it is.
“We have 20 trucks go in and out several times a day.
“We do VicRoads testing, it’s B doubles semi-trailers, trucks, buses many times throughout the day to satisfy VicRoads requirements. We can’t stop that at all not even for a day.
“It can create a lot of danger if traffic management is not done properly.”
She said it takes five minutes with local traffic to exit out of Hallam Valley Road. With extra traffic, students will have to do more waiting on the road than driving in the one-hour lesson.
“Fridays are impossible. From 2pm any day of the week it’s chaotic out there.
“Turning right you might be sitting there 10 to 15 minutes waiting in queue.”
Yugo Driving School has a policy that prohibits their trucks turning right onto South Gippsland Highway due to the danger.
“I don’t think (the temporary detour) is an option. There’s not enough gaps in the traffic to enable such a big community to come through. It’s just not going to work.”
The hump bridge on the road is another major concern for businesses including Ms Radisavljevic, saying foreign traffic may lead to accidents.
“We have a tight bridge over Hallam Valley Road. There’s only one vehicle at a time that can go through.
“Local traffic knows this and they know how to take care properly. If we start to get random traffic going up and down not knowing about how the bridge works it might create a lot of accidents.”
Mr Hamer also has a factory in the area. According to him, the traffic onto South Gippsland Highway is already “terrible and dangerous.”
“We turn right onto the highway and we have to speed up to 80km/h to merge into the traffic after sitting on the median strip in the middle of the road.
“In my little cars it’s okay but I wouldn’t want to do it in a truck, it’ll just take too long.”
ATCO Structures and Logistics also located on Hallam Valley Road deliver over-dimensional loads, namely large work accommodation to construction sites across Victoria.
“On a big project we can send 20 to 25 out to one site and that’s in the space of few hours in the morning,” manager Sam Parlane said.
“The movements don’t happen in the quiet part in the middle of the day. A lot of these are in the morning or in the afternoon because we must get to and from the site in the middle of the day.
“So, the peak transport period is always in the earlier rush hours.”
The group has asked for temporary lights at the intersection to the highway to deal with the dangerous turn, but they were refused outright.
“I told them they must as minimum have traffic light control. They said they won’t do it because it’s temporary and I said it’ll kill in the first hour,” JDN Monocrane managing director Colin Smith said.
Mr Smith has to seek a permit from National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to carry their manufactured cranes over the detour.
“We take eights the volume of traffic as to what they have on Hallam Valley Road.
“It’s a goat track, a narrow windy road not for traffic where goats walk up with their cloven hooves.”
Businesses are also fearful that their land value will decrease incredibly because of the level-crossing closure.
“We’re talking $100 million in lost value to our land,” Mr Hamer said.
“We’re talking about $10 to $15 million a year in lost productivity and transport costs.”
