Greater Dandenong City Council Mayor, Lana Formoso, has welcomed a commitment to the Stud Road traffic project announced in the Victorian Budget this week.
The Mayor said Council’s persistent, sustained advocacy on behalf of the Greater Dandenong community had paid off.
“We were pleased to hear of the commitment to this project. There have been too many fatalities and crashes on this stretch of road. I understand there’s funding for detailed design in 2024-25 and for the project to be implemented in the following year or so,” she said.
“We have a large residential neighbourhood on one side of Stud Road, and on the other, Dandenong Stadium, a park, wetlands, bike paths and a bus stop. There are four lanes of traffic entering and exiting the M1 and until recently, the speed limit was 80 km/hr.
“It is harrowing watching people with prams, small children, mobility scooters and cyclists trying to cross along the 800m stretch of road with no traffic lights or pedestrian facilities.”
In the five years to June 2023, there were eight casualty crashes along Stud Road between the Monash Freeway and Heatherton Road; four of which resulted in serious injury. Tragically, in April 2018, a person lost their life on the road and in December last year a child was killed after being struck by a car on Stud Road.
Mayor Formoso said she had personally advocated for the matter to be addressed by the State Government for a decade alongside Greater Dandenong City Council and community organisations.
“I was pleased that the Minister for Road Safety and a representative of the Department of Transport and Planning visited us in recent months to discuss the matter, along with Gabrielle Williams, our local Member for Dandenong. Obviously, they heeded the calls from community,” she said.
Council has worked collaboratively with the Department on various designs for the project.
“It will be such a relief to have the traffic lights and other elements of the road improvements installed, and we will be urging the Department to bring a sense of urgency to the implementation,” the Mayor said.
