FRESH BRIDGE PUSH

Call for feasibility study to solve Barwon Heads traffic choke

A LOCAL politician has made a fresh call for another road bridge to be built between Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove as holiday traffic clogs the towns.

MP Simon Ramsay wants the State Government to push VicRoads to do a feasibility study and he’d like to see all options explored — including, controversially, extending Geelong Rd to a bridge.

But the man behind the last bridge campaign says it should have been done right 10 years ago. “I think we very much have missed a big opportunity when we had the chance to build a second bridge in the first place,” Bernard Napthine says.

BARWON Heads is “choking to death” on traffic and needs to urgently explore the need for another bridge, state Coalition MP Simon Ramsay says.

The Western Victoria MP has called on the State Government to direct VicRoads to undertake a feasibility study into the need for another bridge, as the town’s roads buckle under the annual influx of traffic.

Mr Ramsay and City of Greater Geelong councillor Stephanie Asher were at Ocean Grove yesterday dis- cussing the issue. “Barwon Heads is choking to death,” Mr Ramsay said. “It is becoming very urgent.

“The Barwon Heads Bridge is at full capacity in the summer at high visitation times, and we need another option.

“The Bellarine Link road that’s been proposed is decades away, and not funded yet.”

Bellarine MP Lisa Neville did not say whether she would push VicRoads to undertake the study, but said Mr Ramsay should “come clean” and tell the community where he would like to see a new bridge and what properties would be affected.

Mr Ramsay said he’d like to see all options explored, including the controversial former plan to extend Geelong Rd into a bridge.

“I’d be supportive of that being one of the options to be explored,” Mr Ramsay said. “It’s not the perfect option, and no doubt there will be people who don’t support that option, but I’d like to see that in the mix of a range of options that VicRoads will consider.”

Barwon Heads resident Bernard Napthine said the town missed its chance to fix the problem almost 10 years ago — when then Planning Minister Justin Madden used his special powers to rubber stamp the two-bridge Barwon Heads Bridge replacement project.

At the time, Mr Napthine, the former Friends of the Barwon Heads Bridge president, said he would have preferred the Geelong Rd extension option to prevent future traffic woes. Now, he says, Barwon Heads has a traffic, parking and pedestrian problem.

“I think we very much have missed a big opportunity when we had the chance to build a second bridge in the first place,” Mr Napthine said yesterday. “To me, they mucked it up in the first place and now trying to fix it is going to be very tricky and expensive.

“There are all sorts of prob- lems Barwon Heads has, certainly a new bridge would be very useful and help address some of those problems … but I have a feeling no one’s got the will or the money to make that happen.”

Mr Napthine said VicRoads’ Bellarine Link project — extending the Geelong Ring Road to the Bellarine Peninsula — now appeared to be a better priority to solve the town’s traffic issues.

The latest issues come just days after locals raised concerns about a 4km-long traffic jam from Barwon Heads to Ocean Grove caused by new pedestrian crossings.

Barwon Heads resident of more than 20 years, Brian Ferguson, said the congestion had been caused by pedestrian crossings installed on either side of the Bridge Rd and Hitchcock Ave roundabout in 2016.

Ms Neville said the crossings were installed after community lobbying for improved pedestrian safety.

VicRoads regional south west director Mark Koliba urged motorists to be patient through Barwon Heads during the tourist season. “We will continue to monitor traffic impacts to determine whether further infrastructure improvements may be needed,” he said.