Thursday, 20 June 2024

Mooroolbark–Hull roads, Mooroolbark

Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (17:06): (723) The Mooroolbark Road and Hull Road intersection in Mooroolbark under the railway bridge is still dangerous and congested. This is a significant issue for our local community in Mooroolbark, and hundreds and hundreds of residents keep asking why this Labor government fails to allocate any funding to fix this dangerous road. Certainly what the government should be doing is looking for an opportunity to upgrade this road and duplicate Mooroolbark Road well before the housing development at Kinley comes on, with thousands more homes and likely thousands more cars on the road. It is congested now, and it certainly needs addressing and duplicating now. Widening Mooroolbark Road to make it a dual carriageway would actually ease significant congestion. Anyone who travels through there, and lots of people do, knows it is a single-lane bottleneck under the rail bridge at the moment, which causes significant congestion throughout the day, particularly in peak times but also at after-school times.

When I raised this in the Parliament last time – and I have raised this in Parliament many, many times ‍– from adjournment 629 our community was pleased to see that the minister’s answer highlighted the need for a project such as the Mooroolbark Road duplication. The minister did agree with me that this would ‘significantly improve traffic flow in the area and access to the precinct’, and I quote that from the minister’s answer. Indeed a reservation is in place which will enable a future widening of Mooroolbark Road between Hull Road and Maroondah Highway.

The action that I seek from the Minister for Roads and Road Safety is that the government allocate sufficient funding for the Mooroolbark Road duplication and in doing so make a new section of the road so Mooroolbark Road, instead of going under the rail bridge, actually cuts through the south-west corner of the Kinley estate to meet up at a new point on Hull Road near the Supersoil Garden Centre in Mooroolbark. I understand that this would be part of the developer’s opportunity to help duplicate that road and ease congestion for commuters in Mooroolbark, and it would completely alleviate the current situation of congestion under the rail bridge. That is the action I seek on behalf of my community, to allocate funds to duplicate Mooroolbark Road down to Hull Road in Mooroolbark.