By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
FRUSTRATED drivers and pedestrians are being urged to make their case to jettison Noble Park’s three level-crossings.
VicRoads this month launched a community survey on the removal of level crossings at Corrigan, Chandler and Heatherton roads as well as other sites in McKinnon, Bentleigh, St Albans, Mitcham and Bayswater.
Greater Dandenong councillor Roz Blades urged residents and others affected by the traffic log-jams at the crossings to make their voices heard.
She said it was encouraging that the level crossings could be among the first of 50 level crossings that the State Government has pledged to remove.
She was concerned by “a lot of confusion” among the “multicultural community” about the survey and urged the council to promote it through various media.
The council’s pictorial syringe disposal pamphlet could be a template for ensuring non-English-speaking background residents understood the different design options – which include lowering the rail line under the road, dipping the road under rail or building a rail or road bridge over the intersection.
The council’s preference is for lowering the rail line – like the much-lauded Springvale Road level crossing removal.
“Put a big tick next to the picture of (the design) we support; a big cross next to a picture of what we don’t,” Cr Blades said.
The survey asks for comment on matters such as the crossings’ disruptiveness, the frequency of traverses and whether alternative routes exist.
Before the last state election, the council lobbied for the crossings’ removal ahead of the South Gippsland Highway and the fatal Abbotts Road crossings in Dandenong South.
The council argued that the Noble Park crossings congested roads, delayed bus services, were dangerous and a blight on nearby shops and businesses.
“(Their removal will) importantly underpin the development of Noble Park activity centre.”
VicRoads metropolitan projects director Brendan Pauwels said the survey information would influence the order, timing and design of the level-crossing removals.
The community consultation would extend to all of the 50 earmarked “most dangerous” level crossings over the next six months.
Four of the projects were already underway in Ormond, Glen Iris, St Albans and Blackburn, he said.
“VicRoads is working with the City of Greater Dandenong… to ensure
the survey reaches the culturally and linguistically diverse community in
Noble Park, including Croatian, Maltese, Punjabi and traditional Chinese.
He said a phone translation service was available on 13 14 50 and that survey hard-copies were available for those without internet access.
The survey closes at midnight on 19 April.
Go to vicroads.vic.gov.au/planning-and-projects/future-level-crossing-removal-projects.
