Commuters trapped in own driveways at peak times on Princes Highway rat run

GRIDLOCK has got so bad in one part of Melbourne’s southeast that people living on a Princes Highway rat run are trapped in their own driveway for up to 15 minutes at peak times.

Andrew Galban says traffic is so heavy during the morning and afternoon peak that it can take as long as 15 minutes to get onto Frawley Road. Picture: Chris Eastman

FED-up Eumemmerring residents are being trapped in their own driveways for up to 15 minutes by drivers using Frawley Rd as a peak-hour rat run.

Andrew Galban said people used his street to get from the gridlocked Princes Highway to Endeavour Hills and Narre Warren.

“It’s a council road,” Mr Galban said.

“In 2015 they did a count of how many cars use the road and it’s supposed to accommodate 3000 cars per day but in 2015 it managed 7000 cars and now it’s 10,283.

Residents of Frawley Road, Eumemmerring say traffic from Princes Hwy crams their road during peak hour, trapping them in their driveways. Picture: Chris Eastman

“People don’t want to wait in Princes Highway so they go down our road, which does mean 15 minutes in our driveways. People are trapped inside their homes.”

Mr Galban said he wanted the council to consider building a road through the reserve behind Frawley Rd between Doveton Ave and Gunns Rd, which would allow residents to get to their street.

He said Mayor Sam Aziz and Cr Rosalie Crestani were sympathetic, but told him it would be poor etiquette to take the matter on, given it was in Cr Damien Rosario and Cr Wayne Smith’s ward.

He said he had written to councillors Smith and ­Rosario, but had not received a response.

A response from Casey on July 10 said the reserve provided “much-needed open space for the community”.

Frawley Road was intended to accommodate 3000 cars a day, but now caters for about 10,000. Picture: Chris Eastman

Acting manager of city planning Keri New said it was not appropriate for a road to be built through the reserve and that it would create flooding issues.

City design and construction manager Trevor Griffin said Paperbark St-Frawley Rd had a daily traffic volume of about 10,000 vehicles and was “expected to carry high traffic volumes” because it was a major road.

“Due to traffic volumes on Paperbark St-Frawley Rd, speed humps or any traffic-calming devices that traffic is required to drive over cannot be installed in line with the relevant traffic engineering guidelines,” Mr Griffin said.

Cr Wayne Smith said he was only ever copied in on emails about the project and a similar plan was knocked back at council decades ago because it would shift the problem elsewhere.

He said he would consider the proposal when a report came back to council.

Cr Damien Rosario did not respond to Leader’s queries.