A $100m fund to improve West Melbourne streets has paid for tram stops and streetscapes kilometres away

3 weeks ago 4

West Melbourne residents say a $100 million fund meant for liveability improvements in their area is being misused to speed up traffic that will soon flow off the new West Gate Tunnel.

A blitz to roll out new line markings, traffic signals, road closures and traffic signal adjustments in West Melbourne began on September 7 – a week after residents learnt about the works.

West Melbourne resident Beck Roy at the pedestrian crossing at Dynon Road, which will be removed to speed up traffic coming off the West Gate Tunnel.

The work is being paid for by the $100 million Transport Amenity Program, announced by the state government and City of Melbourne in 2018 to “revitalise local roads and public space” in West Melbourne and address the impact of Transurban’s West Gate Tunnel.

However, as well as the traffic changes, millions from the fund has been spent kilometres away from West Melbourne, including on new tram stops and streetscape improvements in the CBD.

The City of Melbourne opposed the new $10 billion toll road when it was being planned in 2017 because it will pump an extra 9000 vehicles into West Melbourne every day, undoing decades of work to reduce traffic in the inner city.

Residents in West Melbourne have spent seven years asking for details about what the Transport Amenity Program (TAP) funds will be spent on, only to be shocked by the suite of changes announced by Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams in a press release on August 30 without any consultation.

Transport planner and resident Beck Roy said it was clear the road changes being rolled out were designed to prioritise traffic at the expense of the area’s liveability.

“West Melbourne hasn’t received any kind of improvements to amenity – it’s focused on traffic movement,” she said.

Roy said the area would become more difficult and dangerous for pedestrians, including around North Melbourne station, with the works set to remove a crossing at the intersection of Dynon Road and Dryburgh Street.

Three new double-lane, right-hand turns will be introduced on Victoria Street at the intersections with Dryburgh and Abbotsford streets, which Roy said were inappropriate for residential streets.

An existing nearby double-lane turn from King Street onto Curzon Street is notorious for cars mounting the verge, with bike hoops outside the Our Community social enterprise building repeatedly flattened.

“It’s introducing a new risk to the safety of people walking in their neighbourhood,” she said.

Roy said she knew about the TAP projects only because she had worked with the City of Melbourne earlier this year, but other residents would still be in the dark.

“It’s really disrespectful to the local community to deliberately keep them less informed than they need to be,” she said.

Mary Masters, of the North West Melbourne Association, said the TAP fund was quickly running out, and the amount allocated to projects had recently jumped from $20 million to $46 million.

“There’s been no accountability and no transparency and there’s not going to be any funds left to fix the traffic in six months’ time when we are actually allowed to spend it,” Masters said.

“How do those William Street raised tram stops address traffic from the West Gate Tunnel Project?”

Roy said that some planned street closures might prevent rat-running, but the absence of communication or consultation meant many residents would be taken by surprise when a local street was suddenly shut off.

A spokesperson for Williams said traffic movement would be monitored for six months after the toll road opened and community feedback would be collected to assess the interim measures.

“We worked closely with the City of Melbourne on a package of works which include new line markings, adjusted traffic signals and safety bollards at key intersections to keep traffic moving and stop people using local roads as short-cuts,” they said.

The spokesperson confirmed $10.7 million from the TAP program had already been spent on new tram stops on William Street, and bike lanes on La Trobe, Peel and Abbotsford streets.

More than $46 million from the fund has been allocated to projects including a Franklin Street streetscape upgrade in the CBD and the Dynon Road shared user path, they said.

At a council meeting earlier this month, Greens councillor Olivia Ball put forward a motion requesting a detailed account of the TAP expenditure and commitments to date.

The motion also requested the release of “additional traffic modelling” conducted by the state transport department which had forced council to pause work on TAP projects.

Acting Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell said the state government was delivering the interim works in West Melbourne, and council would continue working with it on projects to stop rat-running and to protect amenity in North and West Melbourne.

“While consultation has been led by the Victorian government, we acknowledge more could have been done to hear from residents before the interim works commenced,” Campbell said.