The RACV has called for a multibillion-dollar investment in the “missing link” in Melbourne’s ring road.
A report released by RACV last week estimated $6 billion would be needed to complete the M80 ring road between Greensborough and East Link at north Ringwood.
“Completion of the Metropolitan Ring Road from Greensborough to East Link has long been RACV’s top priority transport and infrastructure project,” general manager public policy Brian Negus told Star Weekly.
He said it was the only solution to “mass congestion” on roads in Melbourne’s north-east and the ring road itself.
But Whittlesea council is unsure whether the “missing link” will help its commuters much, as congestion becomes a daily part of life for drivers using Plenty Road and High Street.
“The M80 is a priority project for our region but not specifically for Whittlesea,” a spokeswoman said.
“In terms of congestion, it will have little effect as, presumably, more traffic would use that link to access the Hume Freeway instead of going the long way around, as in along City Link and through the Burnley-Domain tunnels.”
As part of its Access Denied campaign, Whittlesea council is lobbying for construction of route E6 from the M80 to Bridge Inn Road to relieve congestion.
The new E6 will be capable of carrying more than 50,000 cars a day and the council wants it to become an arterial road rather than the state government’s proposed six-lane freeway.
The proposed E6 freeway would extend from the M80 to meet the future Outer Metropolitan Ring Road at the Hume Freeway, passing through the suburbs of Thomastown, Mill Park, Epping, Wollert, Woodstock, Donnybrook and Beveridge.
Land along the E6 route is already reserved and while some environmental and civil engineering studies need to be completed, there are no known impediments to building it.
“We will be asking each party in the lead-up to the state election to commit to the delivery of this missing link with a proper planning study,” Mr Negus said. “Our preference is for the outer alignment.”
This would take the “missing link” east to near Kangaroo Ground.
Another proposed route would bring the link through the Banyule Flats and other environmentally sensitive areas.
Other road and transport projects listed as RACV priorities are the metropolitan rail project and tunnel under the CBD, a Melbourne Airport rail link, and abolition of all level crossings in metropolitan areas.
