The Narre Warren North Road Upgrade between Fox Road and Belgrave-Hallam Road is negatively impacting the entire community, according to a group of local residents who are concerned by the projects’ final design.
The upgrade will remove the right turns out of Crawley and Brundett Roads into Narre Warren North (NWN) Road, forcing vehicles from Crawley and Brundrett roads to make “dangerous“ U-turns, in order to travel north on NWN Road.
Trucks will not able to make right turns out of the two roads and will have to make detours via Fox and Belgrave-Hallam Roads, in order to travel north.
Residents from Crawley Road returning home along NWN road from the south, will have to drive past their road and make a U-Turn at Memorial Drive, in order to get home.
Local resident Ray Cupido said the design of the upgrade ignored residents’ feedback.
“Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) took all our concerns and feedback back in March saying they would incorporate it into the final redesign but they didn’t change anything,“ Mr Cupido said.
“They published our feedback on their website and they wrote that 90 per cent of residents were concerned about their original design.
“This project costs $62 million and they’re doing a half-baked job.
“They are forcing road users to spend more time in their vehicles, costing more money and adding to carbon pollution.
“A lot of people are angry about it but are too scared to come out and say something.”
Resident Alan Timms agreed he felt he had been lied to.
“They’re directing traffic to make dangerous U-turns at Mary MacKillop Primary School and Calvary Health Care and I don’t think they need more traffic at these intersections,” he said.
“They claim they are making the changes for safety reasons.
“In response to a questions I sent to Major Road Projects, they replied there have been eight accidents over the last six years in this section of the road, including one at Crawley and none at Brundrett Road.
“We verified this data on the Vic Roads crash statistics website.“
The residents say it will result in more vehicles using residential roads as “ratruns“, including Cantwell Road.
Marco’s IGA owner Marco Ciavarella said he was not one of the local businesses that were consulted regarding the project.
“The people from Crawley and Brundrett Road won’t be able to do a right turn to come here, they will have to travel further down to where the U-Turns, which will take my customers away as they look for a quicker route.”
The residents have requested their suggested changes be incorporated into the design.
MRPV program director Brendan Pauwels said the chosen design was the safest outcome for road users.
“We’ve finalised the design for the Narre Warren North Upgrade which will improve safety and deliver a better travel experience for all road users on this busy north-south link,“ Mr Pauwels said.
“This includes making Crawley Road left-in and left-out only, and removing right turns from Brundrett Road to Narre Warren North Road – which will help reduce the potential for collisions at these intersections.”
According to MRPV, the frequency of crashes on this section of NWN Road is twice the average of the entire outer South East metropolitan road network.
By adding the extra lanes between Fox Road and Belgrave-Hallam Road and installing road safety barriers, MRPV aims to reduce the number and severity of crashes.
The residents provided feedback in March and the final plans were realised on Saturday 30 October.
Since the design was presented to the community, almost 250 people submitted feedback forms.
