Buninyong MP Michaela Settle has cast doubt on the prospect of the Victorian government committing to the Warrenheip freeway upgrade anytime for the foreseeable future.
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The freeway upgrade, flagged by the Victorian government at least two decades ago, would apply to that stretch of the Western Highway where traffic slows to 80km/h on the approach to Ballarat from Melbourne, and involve a possible overpass as part of the works.
"I spoke to council, Regional Roads [Victoria] and the Minister for Roads just the other day," Ms Settle said. "What they're saying is that the [Ballarat] Link Road is not the priority, and certainly Warrenheip is not the priority."
"The priority is the Ballarat-Carngham Road."
The comments were made at a Buninyong community meeting on Thursday evening, and come amid a renewed push within the Warrenheip-Woodmans Hill community to address the traffic risks tied to the notorious Old Melbourne and Brewery Tap roads intersection on the Western Highway.
"I don't agree with [Ms Settle]," said City of Ballarat councillor Ben Taylor at the same meeting, adding that both the Link Road and the proposed Buninyong bypass should rank as priorities for government.
"As council we're frustrated, not just in Buninyong but across the whole city.
"Woodmans Hill should also be a priority; it's a dangerous intersection - everyone who uses it knows it is.
"The sad thing is it's going to take a death for something to happen and that's not good enough."
It was a sentiment echoed by Kirrily Liddle, secretary of newly formed resident group Committee 4 Warrenheip, or C4W, who told The Courier the intersection upgrade was "overwhelmingly" a major concern in her community.
"That intersection is hard even for locals to navigate," she said, referencing the complex and risky turning manoeuvres drivers must negotiate to cross the intersection.
"There are about six roads converging in that area and it's just too confusing - we've even had near-misses with our school buses."
The proposed yet unfunded freeway upgrade, which accounts for a public acquisition overlay in the area as well as the state government's purchase of several properties fronting the highway, lies at the heart of the City of Ballarat's 2015 Woodmans Hill masterplan.
The masterplan - the draft of which dates back to 2006 - is intended to guide careful redevelopment of the area with a view to lending it a level of aesthetic and commercial appeal commensurate with that of the city's centre.
To that end, council recently rezoned 12 hectares of land fronting the highway commercial, and currently has at least two pertinent planning applications before it.
Ms Liddle said that though the potential "building boom" in her area was broadly welcomed by residents, few were comfortable which such development absent a commitment to fund the freeway upgrade.
"We've had absolutely nothing happening out here for years," she said.
"[The state government] publicly acquired a heap of land along the highway years ago, and all of that land is either vacant or looking derelict because the occupiers won't do any upgrades when they know at any stage it could be taken off them."
"So, we want the investment to make the area look nice, but we know it will affect local traffic immensely, which is why we need a plan now to upgrade the intersection."
Ms Liddle said if the reluctance of the Victorian government to fund the upgrade were to endure, then a material re-think would inevitably loom.
"If they want to keep it as a freeway, they need to put in an overpass," she said. "But if they aren't willing to do that, then they need to slow the traffic down and probably put in traffic lights because there's no other way to make it safe as the area develops."
This, she added, should presumably release the area of the public acquisition overlay and enable council to develop a more coherent masterplan for the eastern gateway precinct.
The Committee 4 Warrenheip will host its first meeting at the Warrenheip Memorial Hall next Wednesday at 7.00pm, where residents hope to unite their voices with a view to bringing pressure to bear on government in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.
Ms Liddle said that Ms Settle had indicated her attendance for the community meeting.
On Friday, the City of Ballarat confirmed the Ballarat Link Road remains a tier one infrastructure priority for council, contrary to Ms Settle's statement in Buninyong.
READ MORE: Ballarat's Now and into the Future Campaign
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