By Violet Li
A small section of Evans Road in Cranbourne West will be duplicated under a $30 million pledge from the Federal and State Governments, with works to commence later this year.
Community members welcome the upgrade, but they say the entire road should be duplicated, or at least the duplication should be extended longer to Thompsons Road.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the Evans Road duplication between Duff Street and Central Parkway in late February as a part of a $1.2 billion roadworks package to increase capacity and improve efficiency in growth areas surrounding Melbourne, partnering with the State Government.
The about-to-be-duplicated section is about 500 metres, against the total 5 kilometres on Evans Road from Duff Street to South Gippsland Highway. Only intersections have been duplicated within the 5 kilometres.
Evans Road runs across three suburbs in Casey: Cranbourne West, Lyndhurst, and Lynbrook.
Cranbourne West local Michael Hin pointed out that Evans Road, a major road in the area, is very busy during peak hours.
“Traffic has been getting worse and worse because there are more cars and more people living here,” he said.
“It’s a critical road here. This road allows you to bypass Cranbourne, so you don’t have to go through the South Gippsland Highway.”
He said locals would be frustrated when the traffic would have to be diverted into the estate nearby with the coming roadworks.
He also did not understand why only such a small section was going to be duplicated.
“A lot of people are not happy that they’re only doing this part,” he said.
He understood that roadworks took steps, and the costs could be high in some parts of Evans Road, given the drain and the adjourning wetland, but he said even if the governments were doing the whole way to just Thompson Road, people would be happy with that.
Casey Mayor Cr Stefan Koomen agreed with what Mr Hin said. He believed the $30 million upgrade was a huge win for the Cranbourne West community, but the Council is now calling on the State Government to consider co-contributing to this Federally-funded project and prioritise the duplication of Evans Road between Central Parkway and Thompsons Road.
“This will ensure the completion of an efficient road network for the Cranbourne West community, including active transport connections to Merinda Park train station and bus interchange,” he said.
Quarters Ward Cr Carolyn Eaves said the 500-metre duplication would remove the bottleneck in this part of the road and would support the industrial development in Cranbourne West by complementing the duplication and connection of Central Parkway with Western Port Highway.
She also pointed out the importance of duplicating the entire Evans Road.
“The entire upgrade of Evans Road between South Gippsland Highway and Duff Street is included in the Council’s top 10 priority transport advocacy projects,” she said.
The $30 million cost of duplicating a 500-metre had also been a mystery to Mr Hin and other community members. He said the community joked that the cost only made sense when they took the $42 million Thompson Road roundabout removal into account.
Evans Road upgrade has not been new in the community. Back before the election in 2022, the Liberal Nationals Coalition pledged to fully duplicate Evans Road with a $87 million budget if elected.
According to Major Road Projects Victoria, planning work will soon commence. Key activities include a detailed traffic analysis and modelling, to better understand the future growth of the area and the demand this will place on the road network, environmental investigations to understand flora, fauna and tree species, and investigations to map utility services. Construction timelines will be known once the planning has progressed further.
