Scroll down for the Minister’s response, or click here to discover more about how we’re working for Wendouree.

Original constituency question from Juliana Addison MP to Parliament –

My question is directed to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and is about the Andrews Labor government’s commitment to keep Ballarat moving by upgrading key intersections and addressing traffic congestion across the electorate of Wendouree.

Ballarat drivers know firsthand that it is getting busier and harder to access central Ballarat, particularly from our growing suburbs to the west. There are also significant levels of traffic on our roads during school drop-off and pick-up times as our population continues to grow.

Across the electorate of Wendouree we need to address increased congestion and improve traffic flow at key intersections, add some lanes to roundabouts and replace some other high-traffic roundabouts with traffic lights.

My question to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety is: what are the next steps that are being taken to upgrade key intersections across my electorate of Wendouree to fix the bottlenecks and to keep Ballarat moving?

Response from the Hon Ben Carroll MP, Minister for Public Transport (31st March 2021)  –

In collaboration with the City of Ballarat, pressure will be taken off the busy corridors of Sturt Street and Learmonth Road by making movement through Gregory Street West easier.

The City of Ballarat has already completed the connection works joining Gregory Street West, and Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) will shortly award a contract to complete the signalisation of the Gillies Street and Gregory Street intersection. With this leg open, vehicles that would formerly need to use Gillies Street and Sturt Street to head to Lucas from Wendouree will be able to take the shorter route through Gregory Street West.  Travel in the reverse direction, or along the Ring Road and Learmonth Road will also be alleviated by the addition of this new route.  Pedestrian movements will also be made easier and safer between the lake and the residences & businesses in the vicinity of Gregory Street West, many of which are high pedestrian movement generators, such as self-defence and exercise classes.

Also, as part of the “Keeping Ballarat Moving” works package, there are five other intersections that are being improved at key locations throughout the municipality.

In Delacombe we are improving traffic flow through the intersections of Wiltshire Lane and the Glenelg Highway and at Wiltshire Lane and Latrobe Street where existing roundabouts will be replaced with high capacity traffic signals.

In Sebastopol, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and Midland Highway, a notoriously busy two-lane roundabout is being replaced by a signalised raised safety platform intersection with a much higher throughput capacity and greatly improved  pedestrian safety.  Also, in Sebastopol we are replacing the uncontrolled intersection of Midland Highway and Docwra Street with a two lane roundabout to improve safety and capacity for turning movements, and at the same time extending the duplication of the Midland Highway over 700 metres from Queen Street to Prince Street.

In Lucas we will be replacing the uncontrolled intersection of Ballarat-Carngham Road and Dyson Drive with a new mutli-lane roundabout. This roundabout aligns with the ultimate link road position to facilitate smoother, safer journeys along Balla rat’s busiest growth corridors.

We are eager to deliver these improvements for the travelling public in Ballarat and are well positioned to begin works early in 2021, with some existing assets such as power and NBN already relocated to clear the way for construction crews to start the big road build.

I thank the Member for her question and for her continued advocacy for improvements to the road network for her community.