Both the government and Transurban have claimed the $5.5 billion road will have so little impact on residential areas in the inner west that home acquisitions will not be necessary.

Nine out of 11 homes on the section of Hyde Street in Yarraville, which already face onto major petrol storage tanks, have contacted Transurban asking to be acquired rather than face living on the road.

Under the Western Distributor plan, their houses face a part of the street that will become the major truck route for substances too dangerous to be taken through the new road tunnel.

"We are at the forefront of what is going to happen here," said Emma Honey, the spokeswoman for the resident group.

A personal trainer, Ms Honey bought her house in Hyde Street in 2009 - shortly after the then Labor government placed acquisition overlays on the strip of houses for a planned truck route. That road-widening plan was put on ice when the Baillieu government came to power.

Ms Honey said the residents were well aware they had bought close to industrial areas, and trucks driving through in great numbers.

"I don't think anyone ever thinks 'I really want to live opposite a cluster of petrol containers', but the house was quite sweet and there was very little I could afford until I found this house," she said.

Like others, she has tried to sell in recent years, only to find no willing buyers because of the plans for roads and truck routes hanging over the properties.

This was one of the very few homes in the area we could afford. The Western Distributor … on and off ramps will place very dangerous trucks - too dangerous to use the tunnel - onto our street in order to move them away from other local streets.
Meghan Lee and Brett Segat, Hyde Street

One house in the strip is on the market, after being passed in at auction recently, having received no bids.

The Age has been provided with six statements from homeowners, sent to the government and Transurban, asking for public acquisition.

Among those seeking to be bought out is 75-year-old Maria Kariofillidis, who has lived on Hyde Street for 45 years.

She said she was very sad to be seeking to leave the home where she raised three children and cared for her grandchildren. "I invested hours and hours in my garden, growing trees from seedlings," she said, adding that she was close to her neighbours and they had become a "close-knit community".

Ms Kariofillidis said she had felt unsettled in her home since VicRoads approached her about acquiring the property but was "finally able to sleep peacefully" when those plans were shelved. Now, she said, staying in her home "will not be a sensible option".

It was the only house I could afford at the time. It was falling down. It took me seven hard years of renovations. Our group of houses have now banded together with the common goal of voluntary acquisition. We have dealt with so much stress, so much uncertainty, and we just need a resolution.
Rick Ortega, Vockler St

Greens MP Colleen Hartland has been working with the residents, and said the government or Transurban should buy them out.

"Transurban's mega toll road will make Hyde Street unliveable," she said. "The government needs to take care of residents forced out by trucks and diesel pollution."

CityLink had indicated that Transurban would "make billions from this new tollway", Ms Hartland said. "The least they can do is acquire the homes of families whose front yard will become the superhighway for dangerous container trucks."

Local Labor MP Wade Noonan, whose seat of Williamstown takes in this part of Hyde Street, said he had been "fighting for years" to get trucks off local roads in the inner west. He stopped short of promising to help the residents.

He said the Greens needed to be "honest and declare their opposition to this project" rather than just "nibbling around the edges".

Transurban's spokesman referred questions over possible house acquisitions to the government.

The chief executive of the government's Western Distributor Authority, Peter Sammut, was non-commital when asked on Thursday if the residents' request to be acquired would be considered, saying it would need to wait until an environment effects statement was complete.

It would "provide certainty about the project's effects and what should be done to manage them", he said in a statement.

"We have always said we will not take people's homes to build this project."

He said once plans for the road were complete, it would be clearer what needed to be done to reduce its impacts.