Reasons for de-scoping the Western Distributor
To all parties with an interest in the Western Distributor
Here is Victorian Transport Action Group’s (VTAG’s) paper that assesses the impact of the Western Distributor (WD) and offers 10 recommendations to make it more socially, environmentally and economically acceptable.
- Reasons for de-scoping the Western Distributor (pdf, 967kb)
VTAG’s major concerns with the WD include:
- It costs $5.5 Billion and is 11 times larger than the road proposal of the Andrews Government elected in 2014.
- Transurban’s original ‘unsolicited bid’ has become a massive road cluster linking freeways and arterials in such a way that it induces traffic into the inner and western suburbs and maximises toll revenue for Transurban.
- The planning and EES processes are insufficient to protect communities from night time truck noise, carcinogenic exhaust emissions and other severe negative community health impacts.
- WD will blight homes, land, parkland and waterways and cause worse truck problems in local streets.
- WD denies western suburbs residents’ proper public transport services.
- WD shifts freight from freight trains to monstrous road trucks and worsens road traffic congestion and trauma.
- There is a lack of governance and objectivity to ensure that private sector profiteering is not in conflict with the public good.
