Punt Rd to flow with clearways but without ‘sky road’

GRIDLOCKED Punt Rd will be permanently free of parked cars from next month when long-awaited 24-hour clearways are introduced.

Traffic congestion on Punt Rd, South Yarra, looking from Toorak Rd towards Commercial Road. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

GRIDLOCKED Punt Rd will be permanently free of parked cars from next month when long-awaited 24-hour clearways are introduced.

Drivers who flout the parking ban — which stretches from Alexandra Ave, South Yarra, to south of High St — will have their cars towed, costing $334 plus parking fines.

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan will announce today that the clearway will be enforced from August 29 to help 330,000 people who use the north-south corridor daily.

But he says the government is not considering building a “sky road” over Punt Rd to ease congestion, despite telling residents the idea was on the table.

Documents obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun show several residents asked the government to investigate building an elevated ramp along Punt Rd over CityLink and the Yarra River.

Mr Donnellan thanked them for their ideas and told one: “Your suggestion for a two-tiered roadway will be given consideration in the process of developing options for traffic flow improvements along Punt Rd.”

Opposition roads spokesman Ryan Smith said the letters from Mr Donnellan showed the “intrusive and inappropriate” idea was “a live option”.

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan says there will be no “sky road”

“When Daniel Andrews promised $60 million to fix traffic congestion on Hoddle St, an elevated road was never proposed,” Mr Smith said.

“These responses from the Minister for Roads show that “sky road” is clearly on the agenda.”

But Mr Donnellan told the Sunday Herald Sun: “An elevated or two-tiered roadway for Punt Rd/Hoddle St is not something we are considering.”

Instead, the government is developing continuous flow intersections to allow traffic to move through at the same time as those wanting to turn left or right. The government is also expected to decide soon whether it keeps an overlay on Punt Rd that allows it to acquire homes.

RACV public policy general manager Brian Negus welcomed the Punt Rd clearway, but said the road needed to be widened to three lanes in both directions.

He said an elevated road would be impractical but renewed calls for overpasses or underpasses at main intersections.

He also encouraged the government to consider building a tunnel under Hoddle St from the Eastern Freeway to the Yarra to create a more efficient eastern city bypass.

A proposed tunnel under Hoddle St was knocked back in 2008 after a report found it would cost $1.5 billion.

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