The City of Ballarat’s push to acquire land for the Ballarat Link Road looks set to pave way for a massive long-term project to build dual carriageway roads to the west of Ballarat.
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Council is in the midst of preparing an amendment to the Ballarat Planning Scheme that will allow it to acquire land outside the existing road reserve for the roll-out of stage two.
The second stage is a 12-kilometre section running south of Boulevard Drive in Alfredton that crosses the Glenelg Highway and follows the existing Bells Road alignment to the Midland Highway.
It is expected to take decades to complete the project, which is subject to funding availability at government level and could cost $100 million.
VicRoads traffic data records an extraordinary 3500 vehicles on a 2.7 kilometre stretch of Dyson Drive every day. The figure that is expected to rise in coming years as Ballarat’s population booms.
The link road, 16 kilometres long in total, will be a crucial part of future infrastructure and will support the development of the Ballarat West Employment Zone as well as the city’s rapidly expanding suburbs.
Initial planning reports recommend a preferred alignment that features a dual carriageway from Boulevard Drive in Alfredton to Bells Road that is then reduced to a single-carriageway to the Midland Highway.
Council reports also recommend the use of roundabouts at intersections with heavily used Ross Creek Road, Cuthberts Road and Ballarat-Carngham Road.
City of Ballarat General Manager (of) City Services Terry Demeo said no official planning for the section will commence until the planning scheme amendment is finalised.
“The City of Ballarat is presently advertising a planning scheme amendment to reserve the land for stage two of the Ballarat Link Road,” he said.
“Detailed road planning will follow once the planning scheme amendment is resolved.”
Meanwhile, final planning and design of stage 1B is also underway.
This 2.5 kilometre southern section of stage one will be located between Remembrance Drive and a new access point in to the BWEZ near the intersection of Ring Road and Trewin Street. Works are expected to begin in late 2016 and be complete in 2018.
Stage two is open for public exhibition from June 9-22, with those likely to be impacted able to view the amendment in person at the City of Ballarat Phoenix Building.
Drop-in community information sessions are also planned on June 22 and 23. Bookings can be made through Debra Cartledge at debracartledge@ballarat.vic.gov.au email or on 03 5320 5103.
