West Gate works snarl
SUMMER works on the West Gate Freeway caused traffic chaos on Wednesday, with kilometres of cars slowing to a crawl.
Four kilometres of heavy traffic slowed down from the Fitzgerald Rd exit on the M80 heading towards the West Gate Freeway, as major works to widen it began.
Motorists reported cars being banked for kilometres as a number of freeway entry and exit ramps were closed for the works.
These will remain blocked off to commuters until late February, along with Williamstown Rd under the freeway.
Traffic was moving on both sides of Williamstown Rd, with congestion around the closure points, according to the Transport Department.
Commuters travelling into the city from the inner west can’t enter the West Gate Freeway at Williamstown Rd, instead needing to backtrack along a detour to Millers Rd.
At the Millers Rd off ramp, a line of vehicles was bumper to bumper and snaked back on to the freeway, with one van trying to break into the queue, while blocking a lane.
At the Grieve Pde exit, lanes of traffic were packed with vehicles stretching back hundreds of metres.
Congestion was worst along the detour route of Grieve Pde, Geelong Rd and Boundary Rd.
But motorists are being warned to expect delays of up to 40 minutes towards the end of January, as children go back to school and more cars come on to the road.
Department of Transport spokesman Chris Miller said between 15 to 20 minutes of extra travel time had been added to journeys in the morning.
“There’s congestion through Brooklyn as people take these detours,” he said.
“It’s the ramps at the West Gate and the M80 that are having the biggest impact.
“By comparison on a preCovid morning, that queue would have been considered good for a peak-hour morning.”
Mr Miller said traffic engineers are giving as much green light time as possible to detour routes to help ease congestion.
“We apologise for the delays and we know how frustrating it is, we’re doing the very best we can to minimise it,” he said.
Motorists are urged to plan their journeys carefully to avoid traffic snarls.
A government spokeswoman said “significant progress” was being made during January as it was the quietest month on the transport network.
“We are delivering a huge program of works along the West Gate Freeway and Williamstown Rd over the coming weeks to add extra lanes, upgrade ramps and strengthen bridges as part the West Gate Tunnel Project,” she said.
“We thank commuters for their patience.”