Mooroolbark–Hull roads, Mooroolbark
Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (19:18): (629) The Mooroolbark Road and Hull Road intersection under the railway bridge in Mooroolbark is dangerous and congested, yet after years of our community campaign the Allan Labor government refuses to allocate any funding to widen this state government road and upgrade this intersection to make it safer. It is unacceptable that such a busy suburban intersection used by thousands of commuters every day only allows one lane of traffic to pass at any one time under the bridge. The Labor government would rather spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the inner-city Suburban Rail Loop with no business case than fix a known dangerous intersection in Mooroolbark – to allow two lanes of traffic to pass safely under the rail bridge, which would help prevent accidents and protect pedestrians. The Mooroolbark and Hull roads intersection is hazardous. It is a single-lane bottleneck with low visibility as you approach on Mooroolbark Road – always congested and with regular accidents, including on numerous occasions cars crashing into the fence of households at the T-intersection. Rather than upgrade the intersection to make it safer, the Labor government has instead opted for the cheap option of a so-called safety barrier to – apparently – stop cars careering into people’s homes. Cars still have crashed into this barrier, and those home owners are living in fear. I have raised this in Parliament on numerous occasions and still the Labor government fails to act. The government should just fix this known dangerous intersection before there is a tragic fatality.
The action I seek is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety to allocate much-needed funding in the upcoming state government for a major safety upgrade to Mooroolbark Road at the Hull Road intersection, widening Mooroolbark Road to make a dual carriageway under the rail bridge. I would be happy to host the minister on a visit to this intersection so they can see firsthand how dangerous and congested this intersection is and that it is no longer fit for purpose. Unless it is fixed soon, congestion and risks to safety of motorists and pedestrians will only worsen, and the risk of a fatality increases as thousands of more cars come into the area as a result of the thousands of new homes being built at the Kinley housing development right next door to this intersection. It makes sense to fix it before these houses are built. The government has already confirmed to this Parliament that the low height of the rail bridge is not a limitation on the ability to widen this underpass, so it makes no sense that Labor have taken no action after 10 years in government. The Labor government knows that this state road and intersection is unsafe and that it is their responsibility to fix it, to make it fit for purpose, to make it safer. Our community deserves to have the dangerous and congested intersection at Mooroolbark and Hull roads in Mooroolbark fixed.