By Casey Neill
“It’s the most brilliant news for employment and industry in Dandenong South.”
This was Committee for Dandenong chairman Gary Castricum’s reaction to cash in the State Budget for the Remington Drive overpass.
The project will link Remington Drive to Pound Road West via a bridge over the Cranbourne rail line, and widen the new thoroughfare from two lanes to four on the two-kilometre section between Abbotts Road and South Gippsland Highway.
There’ll be new traffic lights at Remington Drive and Hydrive Close and safety upgrades at the Pound Road-South Gippsland Highway and Abbotts Road-Remington Drive intersections.
More than 40,000 vehicles use Pound Road West and Remington Drive each day.
Mr Castricum said he expected the link to be open to traffic in 2021.
“The Committee for Dandenong identified this as a major problem six years ago,” he said.
“When we first raised it, people were looking at us like ‘Remington where?’.
“We’ve come from that to this.”
He said the project would be fantastic for industry.
“Dandenong South will not develop any further without some resolution to the traffic,” he said.
“We’re losing logistics companies because they just can’t get in and out.”
Mr Castricum said Dandenong South workers who lived in the Cranbourne area had a longer commute than drivers heading to the city.
“They’re sitting in traffic bumper to bumper for 45 minutes,” he said.
“It’s going to take a few years to build this thing, but it’s probably the most important piece of infrastructure to Dandenong at this time to promote industry and employment.”
He said a public private partnership (PPP) model would bring the project to life, but wasn’t sure exactly what the State Government planned.
Mr Castricum praised Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams for continuing to advocate for the project.
“We’re building the missing link that will, for the first time, connect Pound Road West and Remington Drive – boosting productivity for local manufacturers and reducing commute times for local workers,” Ms Williams said.
“Local businesses and their workers have been calling for this connection for years.”
The State Government announced the project on Sunday 29 April ahead of its 2018-’19 budget reveal on Tuesday 1 May.
Finer details are still to come.
It’s part of the $2.2 billion Suburban Roads Upgrade package to upgrade 13 key arterial routes across the northern and south-eastern suburbs.
Greater Dandenong Council welcomed the project.
“The link will provide direct access to the South Gippsland Freeway for local manufacturers and the flourishing freight and logistics industry,” it said in a statement.
“It will also improve access for people commuting to work in the Dandenong South industrial area.”
The statement said the new link formed part of an overall transport plan that Greater Dandenong Council had been advocating for over a number of years.
“This project will form an important part of a chain of roads that will eventually provide a high standard east-west route between EastLink and the South Gippsland Highway,” it said.
“The upgrade will not only reinforce Dandenong South’s position as one of Victoria’s major economic and employment clusters but it will also significantly reduce traffic congestion and improve commuter access to the area.”
