The SEARCH FOR ACHIEVABLE Solutions

At a series of public meetings in 2019, Save Willy Road formulated a mission of “Truck bans and no clearways for Williamstown Road.” We are calling for legislated 24-hour truck bans on Williamstown Road when the West Gate Tunnel opens, consistent with other key residential roads in the City of Maribyrnong, with appropriate exemptions for trucks delivering to local businesses. 

The question is, how can trucks realistically be removed from Williamstown Road?

THE COUNCILS’ PLAN: PROVIDE DIRECT LINKS TO THE FREEWAY

Throughout the West Gate Tunnel Environment Effects Statement process, both Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay councils called for alternative north-south freight routes to enable trucks to travel between the Tottenham/Brooklyn industrial precinct and the West Gate Freeway without passing through residential areas on Williamstown Road and Millers Road.

Hobsons Bay Council asked the state government to extend Grieve Parade northward to Market Road and the Tottenham industrial precinct and upgrade it to a preferred truck route, and also provide new freeway access ramps at Doherty’s Road and Grieve Parade. 

Maribyrnong Council’s preference is for an extension of Paramount Road southward to the freeway. In July 2019 the council formally resolved not only to request the State Government to fund the design and development of a viable north-south freight connection away from residential areas, but also to introduce truck curfews on Williamstown Road immediately, followed by a permanent truck ban once the tunnel opens. 

In both cases it involves a minor inconvenience for trucks, diverting them away from the port for a short distance before turning south on to the West Gate Freeway, which then gives them direct access to either Swanston Dock or Webb Dock. Even if a Grieve Parade extension was not built, the location of container parks provides easy access to Geelong Road, which leads directly to Grieve Parade and then on to West Gate Freeway.

Both proposals are sensible and reasonable: restrict high-polluting freight traffic to industrial areas and the freeway network. Keep them away from residential areas.

THE STATE PLAN: FREIGHT ON RAIL, CONTAINER PARK RELOCATION

In December 2019 the state government declared that neither truck curfews nor bans would be introduced on Williamstown Road before or after the West Gate Tunnel opens. The Department of Transport claimed Grieve Parade could not handle the extra truck numbers that would result, even at night. It made no attempt to investigate boosting capacity of Grieve Parade. It insisted both it and the government “remain committed to looking at other ways to reduce the impact of freight movement in the inner west.”

But what other ways? And how genuine are there efforts? The department still refuses to release the final report of its hopelessly flawed 15-month-long Millers Road-Williamstown Road Corridor Study, which was explicitly tasked with identifying ways of minimising the negative impacts on residents resulting from the vastly increased truck traffic on those two north-south routes. Our Freedom of Information efforts have revealed that the still-secret Corridor Study report lists 57 initiatives that might help us — but the department won’t reveal what those 57 initiatives are, how many they have seriously examined or how many remain live options.

Instead the State Government, principally through the office of Williamstown MP and Ports and Freight Minister Melissa Horne, is pushing an interconnected three-part strategy to reduce truck volumes on Williamstown Road.

  • CONTAINER PARK RELOCATION

    The introduction of 24/7 truck bans on several major inner west roads once the West Gate Tunnel opens will create congestion and efficiency issues for container parks and logistics companies in the Tottenham/Brooklyn industrial precinct as trucks face longer, slower trips to and from the port. Freight Victoria, a division of the Department of Transport, is working with container park owners to encourage them to relocate to sites with better access to the freeway, including locations nearer to the proposed Port Rail shuttle at Altona. If they do, the number of container trucks taking short cuts along Williamstown Road should decline.

  • PORT RAIL TRANSFORMATION PROJECT AND PORT RAIL SHUTTLE NETWORK

    The Port Rail Transformation Project is a $125 million project to build a new rail terminal at Swanson Dock with two tracks, each capable of handling a 600m-long train; it will link with the Port Rail Shuttle Network, funded with $58 million of state and federal funding and $46 million in private sector funding. Under current plans, port rail shuttle trains with a capacity of 84 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers, equivalent to the load carried by 28 B-double trucks, will run between the port and rail hubs at Somerton, in Melbourne’s north, and Altona, in the west. The combined rail initiatives will enable a far greater proportion of container freight to be moved by rail rather than truck. The Port Rail Shuttle link to Altona is scheduled to be operating by October 2022.

  • REPURPOSING OF OLD MELBOURNE MARKET SITE

    Expanded use of the old Melbourne Market site on Footscray Rd for container storage will reduce the need for such activities in Tottenham and Brooklyn. An expression of interest process to lease areas within the market site began in December 2019, with sites becoming available over the next three to 11 years.

THE LONG-TERM SOLUTION: 24/7 TRUCK BANS

Save Willy Road is under no illusions that this three-part strategy offers an immediate fix. In good faith we support it as a long-term measure that will help to reduce the scourge of diesel pollution and truck safety concerns in the inner west.

But as the Government measures the success of its strategy, it needs to make clear to freight operators that Williamstown Road can no longer be viewed as a perpetual shortcut to the port. It must reinforce its commitment to clean air and road safety by imposing a London-style Low Emission Zone on Williamstown Road to keep older high-polluting trucks away from the residential area.

Yet ultimately the Government’s strategy must be part of a transition to a full 24/7 ban on freight trucks on Williamstown Road. A single-lane road through a residential area is no place for massive container trucks — particularly when more appropriate routes to the port are within easy reach. If 24/7 bans are an appropriate measure for other inner-west streets currently clogged with container trucks, then they are appropriate for Williamstown Road as well. The health, safety and amenity of inner west residents is at stake.