On schedule: Connect East CEO John Gardiner told a Dandenong Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Wednesday morning that the EastLink project was on track.By Rebecca Fraser
MEMBERS of Greater Dandenong’s business community were brought up to speed on the progress of the EastLink project yesterday at a Dandenong Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
Connect East chief executive John Gardiner was guest speaker at the Premier Regional Business Awards and spoke about the benefits EastLink would bring to industrial property values and economic growth.
He said the 39 kilometres of tollway was well on track to be completed by November 2008, with Connect East spending between $60 and $80 million a month on the project.
“This will be the biggest road project in the nation,” he said.
“Six thousand Victorians have invested in the project and at least 93 of these are from the Greater Dandenong community,” he said.
Mr Gardiner said industrial property prices were on the rise in Greater Dandenong and EastLink had played a role in the price boom and the increased demand for local industrial land.
“Industrial land values have increased rapidly and I have seen a spate of news stories in the financial pages of papers about the growth in the south east and Dandenong.
“In the Age in May I read that the cost of office space in the south east is now starting to rival CBD offices.
“In July I also saw that only 26 per cent of vacant industrial land in the south east is within two kilometres of a freeway.
“This will rise to 70 per cent with EastLink.
“We are not saying that EastLink is the sole cause of industrial property price rises but the impact of the new freeway is definitely having an effect,” he said.
Mr Gardiner said local streets would no longer be used as “rat runs” when EastLink opened as many people would no longer need to use the back streets to escape traffic congestion.
“The 13 bridges and ramps between the Monash Freeway and the Princes Highway and the Dandenong Southern Bypass will carry much of the eastwest traffic that currently chokes Cheltenham Road,” he said.
He also said the project would create 33 kilometres of new pathways and a $20 million upgrade for the Dandenong, Noble Park, Heatherdale and Kananook train stations was also part of the development.
“In a word, the freeway is all about accessibility,” Mr Gardiner said.
“People will be able to save 1015 minutes for a full trip and hopefully even more.
“EastLink will make possible many new trips short and long and it has been estimated that there will be 254 different ways you can go – that is 254 unique and single trips from one origin to another destination,” he said.
