THE commuter crawl past Calder Park raceway will continue well into the new year with works to make safer traffic crossovers at Organ Pipes Road scheduled for the next four months.
Global Contracting has been awarded a $433,000 contract for the safety upgrades, which start this month.
The works will block south-bound traffic from accessing Calder Park Drive, the site of numerous recent crashes as motorists run the gauntlet of outgoing city traffic at the end of an 80km/h section.
In the five years to the end of June this year there were 10 casualty crashes at this location, five of which resulted in serious injuries.
Western Metropolitan Region MP Bernie Finn said only outbound freeway traffic would be able to turn into Calder Park Drive.
“Traffic travelling towards Melbourne can still access Calder Park Drive via the Kings Road interchange,” Mr Finn said.
He said VicRoads would continue to allow U-turns at Organ Pipes Road and would build an acceleration lane so vehicles can turn safely before heading towards Melbourne.
The latest works are part of a $1.28 million project to make the freeway safer on its approach to the metropolis. “This includes the addition of a third lane inbound between Green Gully Road and the M80 Ring Road, run-off-road treatments between Calder Park Drive and Bulla-Diggers Rest Road, and street lighting at the intersection of the Calder Freeway and Calder Park Drive,” Mr Finn said.
The government has also made a submission to Infrastructure Australia for a full overpass interchange at the raceway intersection, for which the Calder Action Group has lobbied for over many years.
A spokesman for the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport said detailed assessments of projects submitted by the state government were under consideration.
“Once completed, this advice will help the federal government make future investment decisions.”
