Brimbank council is calling for urgent action to fix a notorious intersection.
Mayor John Hedditch says drivers negotiating the Calder Park Drive and Calder Freeway intersection need “stunt-driving skills”.
The council wants state and federal ministers to make fixing the intersection a priority.
“Any city-bound driver who needs to join the Calder Freeway [at Calder Park Drive] faces an appalling risk,” Cr Hedditch said. “It’s a route that requires movie stunt-driving skills – it needs drivers to make multiple manoeuvres including accelerating, looking for gaps in traffic, merging across to the right lane, undertaking a U-turn and then accelerating to try to join a 100km/h freeway.”
He said traffic on Calder Park Drive often backs up during peak hours as cars try to turn onto the freeway.
The council is calling for a full diamond interchange at the intersection to improve safety.
It will write to federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester and state Roads Minister, Luke Donnellan calling for funding.
The intersection currently does not allow city-bound traffic on the Calder Freeway to turn onto Calder Park Drive.
Melton-bound traffic on the freeway is also affected, with boom gates on Calder Park Drive often causing exiting freeway traffic to back up.
“Anyone who’s sat in traffic on Calder Park Drive in the evening or queued up behind the regular boom gate closures at the level crossing knows that it is a painfully slow journey,” Cr Hedditch said. “And because the current exit on Calder Freeway at Calder Park Drive has an insufficient deceleration lane, slow-moving traffic queues up back onto the Calder Freeway, which is a real safety issue.
“Council is calling on the federal and state governments to fund two main works to improve safety and bring the Calder Freeway up to standard.”
The council will also request that the Calder Freeway between Melton Highway and the Western Ring Road be widened and that the 100km/h speed limit be re-introduced.
