A group of business and property heavyweights in Melbourne's north is pleading for government action to fix the area's growing traffic crush, issuing a warning to the major parties that congestion has become so bad it is hurting the local economy.
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The group, which includes some of the state's biggest property developers, has written to Premier Denis Napthine and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews to warn them the opening next year of the vast wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Epping threatens to unleash gridlock if local roads are not boosted.
The market's relocation from West Melbourne will bring with it an average 8800 vehicles a day, 3000 of them trucks, the group predicts.
"This will cripple traffic flow and has the potential to seriously impact on the economic viability of the area," chief operating officer of property developer MAB, David Hall, wrote to the two leaders, on behalf of five large investors in Melbourne's north.
"To date we have experienced hesitation by businesses to invest in the area. Their concerns are infrastructure related and we have seen residential property values stagnate in the growth suburb of North Epping for the exact same reasons."
The group is calling on both major parties to spend $115 million on three key road projects: extending Edgars Road into the rapidly expanding housing estates of North Epping; duplicating O'Herns Road and connecting it to the Hume Freeway.
Leisure City Epping is one large business that is holding off on expanding due to traffic problems, despite getting planning approval this year for an $8 million development. Director Craig Barnes said traffic was so clogged on Miller Street, the centre's customers were struggling to get in and out, so plans to build a new basketball and trampolining centre were on indefinite hold.
"Unfortunately, we've been reluctant, just because of the frustration our customers have been having, to build a facility which would probably increase our traffic by about 40 per cent," Mr Barnes said.
The centre sits on Miller Street, a two-lane local road that now carries 19,000 vehicles a day, thousands more than for which it was designed.
Much of that traffic is pouring in and out of North Epping, and Stockdale & Leggo director Anthony D'Ambros said the real estate agency encountered would-be buyers "almost daily" who baulked at buying there because of the congestion. "They're deciding, 'I don't want to go past there, the traffic's just a nightmare'," he said.
House prices in the area were yet to recover from the market slump of 2011-12, Mr D'Ambros said.
A spokeswoman for Roads Minister Terry Mulder said the state government had committed $500,000 in this year's budget to plan the extension of Edgars Road to North Epping. The extension will be jointly funded by government and developers.
"The Edgars Road extension from Cooper Street to O'Herns Road will relieve congestion in Epping and support jobs growth in the Cooper Street employment area," she said.
Labor's shadow minister for roads Luke Donnellan said he would meet with MAB on Wednesday to hear the corporation's concerns.
