Westall extension urgently needed to prevent traffic crisis in Melbourne’s south-east

17 October 2018

Kingston, Glen Eira and Monash Councils have joined forces to call on the Victorian Government to urgently invest in an extension of Westall Road to avert a traffic crisis in the region when the new Mordialloc Freeway is constructed.

The three councils, representing close to 350,000 residents in Melbourne’s south-east, have warned that the new Mordialloc Freeway will dump thousands of extra cars into the region and clog up local roads.

The Mayors of Glen Eira, Kingston and Monash last week joined together to call for an urgent commitment from the Victorian Government to extend Westall Road to link the Dingley Bypass/new Mordialloc Freeway with the Monash Freeway.

Monash Mayor Paul Klisaris said extending Westall Road would ensure traffic could flow freely all the way from the Mornington Freeway through to the Monash Freeway, without impacting on local roads and, in particular, Springvale, Blackburn and Dandenong Roads.

“This road extension would be highly beneficial to provide greater access to the businesses in the Monash Cluster by removing traffic bottlenecks and improving bus connections for commuters,” Cr Klisaris said.

“Without this link, thousands of cars will instead continue to hit a dead end and clog up the region’s roads which are already struggling due to our increasing population.”

Kingston Mayor Steve Staikos said he welcomed the construction of the Mordialloc Freeway and hoped action could also be taken to prevent it causing local traffic issues. “The region has already experienced increased traffic volumes since the opening of the Dingley Bypass in 2016 with thousands of extra cars now travelling along South Road each day and motorists directed onto roads which were not designed for today’s traffic volumes,” Cr Staikos said.

“On behalf of our communities we are asking the Victorian Government to urgently commit to extending Westall Road to prevent major problems when the Mordialloc Freeway is built.”

Glen Eira Mayor Tony Athanasopoulos and Kingston Mayor Steve Staikos have also joined together to urge the Government to release the long-awaited VicRoads study to address existing congestion on South Road. “The community has been waiting well over a year for promised action to address South Road congestion,” Cr Athanasopoulos said.

“We want real investment to address the problems, not just a quick fix solution that will push the problem into Glen Eira’s already stretched roads and turn them into rat runs.”

The Westall Extension project is also supported by South East Melbourne SEM Group, which represents communities, business leaders and Casey, Frankston, Greater Dandenong, Casey, Cardinia, Mornington Peninsula, Monash, Glen Eira and Kingston Councils.