Elsie Lange
Tracked dirt, mud spills and watery cleanups are making residents feel increasingly “unsafe” on Sunbury Road, as trucks carry spoil to the Hi-Quality waste processing facility in Bulla.
Last month, 20-year-old enrolled nurse Caitlyn Kelly was driving from her home in Sunbury to her client in Craigieburn when she spun out of control at the roundabout at Bulla-Diggers Rest and Sunbury roads because of the wet.
“It was dirty, but I didn’t know that they were washing the road, because there was no signage anywhere saying they were washing anything,” Ms Kelly said.
Ms Kelly said cleaners had only washed the road “up to a certain point” before the roundabout, where drivers break with wet tyres.
She said she was travelling the speed limit or slower, as was the car behind her, before she spun 180 degrees and ended up side-by-side the following car, doing some minor damage to both vehicles.
Ms Kelly’s dad Mark was furious when he heard, arriving at the scene 25 minutes later to take footage and later speaking on the phone with the other driver who said his daughter had done nothing wrong.
A Hi-Quality Group spokesperson said the safety of local roads was their priority and acknowledged the operation of the spoil facility, currently receiving waste from the West Gate Tunnel Project (WGTP), had impacted the road.
“We have worked to upgrade our cleaning process to respond to community concerns,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said there was a “four-stage cleaning process” for trucks leaving the site, with street sweepers and water carts servicing internal roads and cleaning conducted on Sunbury Road “every second night”.
Sherryn Walker said she and her husband were in his four-wheel-drive when they lost traction on the roundabout last weekend.
“I also drove through there this morning on my way to work and found the whole roadway leading to the roundabout very unsafe,” Ms Walker said.
“I could feel that my little Mini did not have much traction. If for any reason I had had to brake hard or swerve on the road, it would have been quite nasty.”
A spokesperson from the CPB John Holland Joint Venture (JV) – constructing the WGTP – said a “small number” of spills had occurred since waste haulage started, but JV was working with authorities and contractors to ensure “highest standard of truck movements”.
“In the event of a spill, traffic management is put in place if required and the relevant road authority in conjunction with the JV undertakes the clean-up,” the spokesperson said.
