By Shaun Inguanzo
KEYSBOROUGH and Dandenong South roads will be congested with trucks and large vehicles unless the State Government extends the construction of a bypass that began last week.
Star can reveal the City of Greater Dandenong is lobbying the State Government to extend the recently commenced Dandenong Southern Bypass in a bid to prevent EastLink traffic from congesting local roads.
The new works are outlined in documents that council officers presented to state cabinet ministers at a meeting last month, and are tipped to cost $100 million.
The $85 million Dandenong Southern Bypass is being constructed by ConnectEast and is expected to help Dandenong South’s industrial traffic enter the company’s EastLink tollway.
But the council is worried that the high volume of traffic exiting EastLink onto the bypass will further clog already busy roads.
Greater Dandenong engineering services director, Tim Tamlin, said the bypass was planned to end at Perry Road, Keysborough, and the South Gippsland Highway, Dandenong South.
But he said council was pushing for extensions from the South Gippsland Highway through to the South Gippsland Freeway, and from Perry Road through to the Westall Road Extension.
The extensions would be a direct continuation of the bypass, but are currently referred to as the proposed Dingley Freeway.
Without the extensions, Mr Tamlin said movement around central Dandenong would suffer from the high volume of traffic forced to exit at Perry Road and then push through Cheltenham Road to head west, and also through central Dandenong.
Mr Tamlin said the South Gippsland Highway to Freeway link was a priority as traffic was already congested without the bypass.
“But the connection straight to the South Gippsland Freeway means you have then got freeway priority,” he said. “It smooths traffic flows.”
Greater Dandenong CEO Carl Wulff said Keysborough residents could expect ‘significant problems’ at intersections near Parkmore Shopping Centre.
“It might well have an impact on access there,” he said.
He said the bypass was in Connect East’s bid to tender for EastLink, and at the time the council was satisfied with the proposal, as it was ‘better half than nothing’.
“But I guess now we will push for the whole thing,” he said
Transport Minister Peter Batchelor last week launched the $85 million Connect East bypass works without a whisper of the extensions, but a State Government spokeswoman this week said it had not ruled out funding them.
Council’s lobbying follows comments made before the Community Cabinet meeting on 26 April by mayor Peter Brown, who was concerned bypass traffic would clog Keysborough roads when it exits on to Perry Road.
