By CASEY NEILL
CLOSING Abbotts Road in Dandenong South would cost jobs, businesses fear.
“We already have a couple of companies who’ve said they have difficulty attracting workers to Abbotts Road because they don’t want to spend half an hour in the evening in a traffic jam trying to get out, or in the morning,” South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) executive officer Adrian Boden said.
“If that’s already a road block, this is literally a road block.”
It came to light last week that the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LCRA) planned to build a road link over the Cranbourne rail line connecting Remington Drive to Pound Road, and close Abbotts Road.
It cited safety and money as the main factors and did not put forward any alternative plans.
“We were all blindsided by that,” Mr Boden said.
“Our expectations were a number of solutions, of which this was one.
“We do not support this solution.
“We support Remington Drive, we do not support Abbotts Road.”
Mr Boden said the LCRA could be “far more creative in trying to find a cost-effective solution than you can in a residential area”.
He suggested a single-lane overpass that brought traffic into the estate in the mornings and out in the evenings.
“It would improve the situation, it wouldn’t solve it. It’s just a thought-bubble,” he said.
Team Systems managing director Shane Poulton said his business was next to the railway crossing.
He said he was concerned about property devaluation and being unable to lease it in the future, plus traffic.
“If I am required to go to Hammond Road I will need to go through two bottlenecks – Remington and South Gippsland – instead of one,” he said.
“It will take at least one hour to go up Abbotts Road onto Remington and down South Gippsland after 2pm or 3pm.
“If it is late in the afternoon and I am coming back from Frankston Dandenong Road, I would be better to park at the end of Abbotts Road near the train crossing, park and walk across the tracks.
“I would imagine this would be taken up by couriers, and a great deal of locals needing to visit someone at this end of Abbotts Road.
“How ironical, someone gets run over after the level crossing has been removed.”
Mr Poulton said morning traffic would bank up on the South Gippsland Freeway exit at Pound Road, making exiting the freeway dangerous.
“The Remington Drive extension will have major issues with large trucks entering and leaving the type of existing businesses that occupy them, causing bottlenecks,” he said.
“My understanding is that Daniel Andrews promised to remove level crossings not put up brick walls.
“This should not be counted towards the government’s numbers as the crossing will not have been removed.
“It will be destroying businesses and affecting the main industrial growth corridor for businesses in south-east Melbourne.”
Arco restaurant’s Lindsay Bull slammed the LCRA over a poorly-attended information session which was held at Nissan on Friday 4 March.
“After returning to my restaurant and seeing people who have businesses and property sitting at tables having breakfast, my question was ‘why didn’t you attend the LCRA meeting?’ – ‘I didn’t know about it’ was the answer from all,” he said.
“We as business and property owners are concerned that if you cannot organise a simple meeting date and time and place, how on earth are you going to organise a major program of removing crossings?”
He urged the LCRA to build the Remington Drive link and reassess safety at the Abbotts Road crossing.
“We cannot make a knee jerk reaction just to find three years down the track it was an error to close Abbotts and try and reopen it. The damage to region will already be done,” he said.
