By Brendan Rees
Traffic woes on Thompsons Road, Cranbourne North is continuing to leave motorists at wits end.
Residents have voted Thompsons Road as one of the worst congested roads of Star News’ Unblock the Gridlock campaign.
Janine Kimberley, who lives at The Avenue in Casey estate in Cranbourne North, says it’s not uncommon for traffic to banked up along Thompsons Road to Narre Warren- Cranbourne Road during peak hour.
“It’s only got worse now they’re doing the duplication on Thompsons Road,” she said.
“I understand they’re doing road work but in the meantime it’s just terrible.
“Any time after three o’clock it’s built up, you just sit and wait and wait and wait to get through. It’s not great,” she said.
She was shocked to see a wall of traffic on William Thwaites Boulevard at the intersection of Thompsons Road at 8.30am on Monday 8 October: “I’ve never ever, ever seen it this bad.”
Some good news is coming with the duplication of Thompsons Road to be completed by 2019.
Up until then, it has made Ms Kimberley’s commute from her home to Parkdale “terrible”. It normally takes her 25 minutes but after 2pm “it could take me up to an hour an half to get home.”
Ric Stewart of Clyde North says responsibility should be put back on developers of new housing estates to cope with the huge “influx” of people moving into the area.
“They should contribute to the road widening and making access to their estates and surrounding areas a lot better,” he said.
“They’re bringing thousands of people into the new estates but they’re only opening up a small section of road to let people in and out of their estates.”
He said a 1.5-kilometre from Linsell Boulevard to Thompsons Road took him 20 minutes on Monday 8 October. This would normally take five minutes.
“You come out of Linsell Boulevard to turn right into Narre –Cranbourne Road and that’s a single lane then it opens up to two lanes then it goes back to single lane and it’s up through to Thompsons Road.”
He described congestion on Thompsons Road as shocking. “I’m retired but when I was working it was a nightmare.”
Cranbourne North resident Jean Camilleri says she’s frustrated by the traffic lights at the intersection of William Thwaites Boulevard and Thompsons Road.
“All of a sudden, I don’t know what they’ve done; they’ve altered them. Four or five cars used to go around,” she said.
“Last Thursday I think I had to wait for about four or five turning signals before I could get through, that was really frustrating. It’s only been the last couple of weeks.
Ms Camilleri says road works on Thompsons Road were making her trips slower.
“You can’t help that but I think once it’s finished it’ll be a lot better.”
Sarah Evans, who lives near The Avenue in Casey estate, had to wait seven minutes at a roundabout on William Thwaites Boulevard before she could turn into a childcare centre to drop off her son on Monday 8 October.
She says she avoids Thompsons Road “because I know it’s horrible.”
Berwick Waters mum Lauren Turfboer says school traffic is bad along Thompsons Road.
“It’s a growing area, it’s annoying but you’ve got to deal with it, what can you do?” she said.
