By Shelby Brooks and Gabriella Payne
Cardinia Shire Council will begin advocating for Racecourse Road Pakenham to be fully duplicated.
Councillor Jack Kowarzik is spearheading the council motion that hopes to see the entirety of Racecourse Road, Pakenham duplicated in the near future to cater for the growing area and amounts of traffic.
Cr Kowarzik’s motion was brought up at the most recent council meeting and supported unanimously, despite some concerns from Cr Carol Ryan, and will see the Cardinia Shire Council begin advocating for the entire road to be duplicated in order to ease congestion and get rid of the current bottleneck situation near the Princes Freeway.
State and Federal infrastructure agencies will be sought to commit to addition resources to expand the scope of the Pakenham Roads Upgrades to include Racecourse Road from Henry Street to the Princes Freeway, as currently, duplication plans are only slated for Racecourse Road from the Monash Freeway to Henry Street.
Cr Kowarzik said he had been thinking about the issue for some time after learning there was no plan to continue the proposed duplication of Racecourse Road beyond Henry Street.
“The project is only from the Monash up to Henry Street, which is strange to me,” he said.
“As it stands, it’s only funded half way.”
Cr Moore pointed out that without the road being fully duplicated, the road would remain a bottleneck – and with the area continuing to grow, this was something they hoped would become a thing of the past.
“To extend it is only common sense otherwise we will be left with that bottleneck forever,” he said.
Cr Springfield agreed.
“This duplication of Racecourse Road is really going to be necessary for people to move around freely in our region,” he said.
“Many councillors have experienced this, it’s a bit of a nightmare.
“We really need some focus work on this,“ Cr Springfield said.
He added that “it’s good timing with Federal and State elections coming up in the next year and a half,“ and was a proposal he was fully on board with.
