Tuesday night’s federal budget is set to include funding for the long-awaited upgrade of Mickleham road.
Hume council and Greenvale residents have been campaigning for the road to be duplicated for a number of years.
Last year’s state budget included $14.851 million for early works on the project.
A 2021 Hume council report noted that traffic on Mickleham Road between Somerton and Donnybrook roads increased by 54 per cent between 2013 and 2019, with 28,590 vehicles using the road daily.
“The level of traffic exceeds the capacity on Mickleham Road as a single lane rural road and the state’s trigger of 20,000 vehicles per day for duplication of arterial roads,” the report stated.
In a statement on Monday, the federal government announced that the budget would include $109.5 million to upgrade Mickleham Road, as part of a $3.3 billion investment in infrastructure projects across Victoria.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government’s infrastructure investment was helping to support thousands of local jobs across the country.
“Continuing to provide record future funding for road and rail projects is a key part of our economic plan for the long term to keep our economy strong,” he said.
“By investing in these projects we are delivering the infrastructure that the Australian economy needs to grow, to get Australians home sooner and safer, and generate thousands of jobs and new opportunities for small businesses right across the state.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said infrastructure was vital to strengthening the economy and generating more work.
“With the unemployment rate already at an equal 48 year low, the measures in this budget will create an additional 40,000 jobs across Australia, building on our world leading economic recovery,” he said.
More to come.
