Craigieburn Rd duplication moves closer with ‘business case’ funding

UPDATE: The State Government will spend $250,000 on a business case to duplicate a notorious road in Melbourne’s north.

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan makes the announcement with Yuroke MP Ros Spence at the Hume Global Learning Centre today. Picture: David Smith

• DIVIDING LINES PAINTED ON CRAIGIEBURN RD
• LABOR PLEDGES $20M FOR DUPLICATION
• ANGER OVER LACK OF FOOTPATHS

ADVOCATES for the duplication of Craigieburn Rd have welcomed funding towards the project but say it’s long overdue and more needs to be done.

State Roads Minister Luke Donnellan and Yuroke state Labor MP Ros Spence announced last Friday the Government would put up $250,000 to develop a business case to duplicate part of the road.

VicRoads will use the money to examine the feasibility of upgrading the road from two lanes to four, between Hanson Rd and Aitken Blvd, and the improvements this would bring to traffic flow and safety.

The business case will also look at installing dedicated bus lanes, bicycle lanes and off-road shared paths.

Craigieburn man Jim Overend, who started a petition and social media campaign to get the road duplicated, said the announcement was “a positive move for the community, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting”.

“Until the bulldozers hit the road, we’ll keep fighting,” he said.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Should they just get on with it? Leave your comment below.

Mr Overend praised Ms Spence for her advocacy on the issue, but said planning for the project should have started years ago, as more people moved to Craigieburn.

Ms Spence said while the Government had not yet begun “building the road” there were three stages involved in doing so and that the business case was “stage two”.

“The only stage after that is going to be getting the money and building the road,” Ms Spence said.

“We don’t get VicRoads to do this kind of work unless we intend to do a duplication.”

Craigieburn CFA senior station officer Peter Spicer said the authority hoped the business case for duplication considered the need for traffic signals to be installed on Craigieburn Rd, near the brigade’s Belsay Place headquarters.

“It’s long overdue that we have signals there,” Mr Spicer said. “We have near-misses there every day.”

MORE TO COME.