By Laura Michell
Hume council expected more bang for the state government’s buck in the Mickleham Road upgrade, believing that for $213 million the road should be duplicated all the way to Craigieburn Road.
The 2022-23 state budget, handed down in May, included $213 million in state and federal funding to upgrade 1.6 kilometres of Mickleham Road between Somerton Road and Dellamore Boulevard in Greenvale.
The budget also included funding for the development of a business case for stage two of the Mickleham Road upgrade between Dellamore Boulevard and Craigieburn Road.
However, Hume council believes the funding should be sufficient to duplicate the road to Craigieburn Road.
In a letter to Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan, seen by Star Weekly, mayor Carly Moore wrote that council was “surprised” that “such a significant investment” was “only delivering 1.6kms of road duplication”.
Speaking at a recent council meeting, councillor Jim Overend said council did its own case study on the duplication of about eight kilometres of Mickleham Road to Mt Ridley Road about two years ago, with the cost estimated to be $145 million.
“This is a lot less than what the government is telling us now,” he said.
“We were left scratching our heads and very angry and confused that this funding would only duplicate 1.6km … which includes part of a road that is already duplicated.
“If we were to go by the state government’s estimates, the total cost would be around $1.3 billion – who would give us that sort of money?”
Cr Overend said the government’s stage two upgrade of 6.6kms of Plenty Road in Mernda was completed in mid-2021 at a cost of just over $145 million, while the current Craigieburn Road upgrade is costing $300 million to duplicate 6km “costing $50m per kilometre, which is under half the cost of Mickleham Road”.
“The state government costing of Mickleham Road makes no sense at all ,” he said.
“We need the Victorian government to explain why the road can’t be duplicated further with the $213 million that has been provided.”
According to the government, the costings have taken into account a range of factors including land acquisition and the relocation and protection of utilities such as a jet fuel pipe that serves Melbourne Airport, as well as escalated costs of services, resources and materials being felt across the construction industry.
“All of our costings are based on the advice of hard working road engineers, who deliver upgrades to some of the biggest arterial roads in Melbourne,” a government spokesperson said.
