Inland port plan

By Nicole Williams
LYNDHURST will be home to the South East’s first inland port in a bid to cut road congestion and improve greenhouse gases in the transport industry.
Last month Qube Logistics and Salta Properties signed an agreement to operate new warehousing facilities in Altona and Lyndhurst offering freight logistics, container handling, and storage and distribution services.
The project responds to concerns by the State Government regarding traffic congestion along arterial roads in the area due to truck movement.
Salta Properties managing director Sam Tarascio said the partnership was an opportunity to meet growing transport needs.
“Salta will push ahead with the development of inland transport hubs at Lyndhurst and Altona in the knowledge that it has an alliance agreement with Qube, a company with national logistics reach,” Mr Tarascio said.
“The alliance of Salta/Qube is now able to offer the Victorian Government a metropolitan network of existing locations at Somerton in the north, Altona in the west and Lyndhurst in the south east and provide a solution that is capable of significantly improving road congestion and streamlining container logistics flow to and from the Port of Melbourne.”
Under the agreement the partnership will develop the two sites, which will eventually link Altona, Lyndhurst and Victoria Dock by road and rail, curbing excessive road use by trucks.
It will create hundreds of jobs and support the booming population growth in the South East.
The Lyndhurst inland port is expected to be complete by 2018.
Managing Director of Qube, Maurice James, said the partnership would take advantage of an existing opportunity.
“The alliance agreement is a tangible way to work together to realise the significant opportunity to establish an efficient network of intermodal facilities to service Melbourne’s growing container market and to mirror and complement our intermodal strategy,” he said.