By Brendan Rees
A Liberal MP for the south-east region says the closure of a busy intersection on Thompsons Road along with other blocked passages is causing an “absolute nightmare”.
South-Eastern Metropolitan MP Gordon Rich-Phillips has called on the State Government to fix the chaos following the closure of Frankston-Dandenong Road and Thompsons Road intersection for a period of five weeks from 1 June.
According to the State Government, the intersection was closed to help the project team to work around the clock to remove the roundabout without disruption or the danger of live traffic.
However, Mr Rich-Phillips said road users have described the de-tours “as being like massive car parks for hours at a time, taking up to 20 minutes to move less than 100 metres”.
He said the government failed to foresee that the alternate route intersections would have increased traffic volumes and should have adjusted traffic light sequences accordingly.
During a parliament sitting on Tuesday 16 June Mr Rich-Phillips called on the Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan to fix the “botched” detour routes and get traffic flowing.
A Government spokesperson said closing the intersection of Frankston-Dandenong Road and Thompsons Road for five weeks would fast-track these important works and complete the project four months early.
“We are delivering on our election commitment to slash travel times in Carrum for 58,000 vehicles every day,” the spokesperson said.
“The feedback from the community is clear, they want travel times cut and they understand it will involve some short term disruption.”
“We won’t be lectured by the Liberals who sat on their hands and built nothing when last in Government.
Meanwhile, Mr Rich-Phillips said the road detours put in place as a result of this closure were blocking lanes on surrounding key intersections causing traffic chaos.
These roads included McCormicks Road where it intersects with Thompsons Road, Wedge Road where it intersects with Frankston-Dandenong Road, Hall Road and Frankston-Dandenong Road, Ballarto Road and Frankston-Dandenong Road.
“This has been made all the worse by VicRoads’s decision to randomly close some turning lanes off Frankston Road onto those adjoining roads because it believed there would be more counter‐traffic turning in the opposite direction, which has further impeded traffic flow,” Mr Rich-Phillips said.
“Priority should be given to these key intersections to increase traffic flow.”
Mr Rich-Phillips said the government has not only completely “botched the planning of this project but the timing as well,” as no significant works have been undertaken since the project started in December last year.
As part of the works, the existing roundabout at Frankston-Dandenong Road will be replaced with traffic lights to reduce congestion, improve traffic flow and support the predicted growth in the surrounding suburbs.
