New traffic counts reveal the number of vehicles using choked and undivided Sunbury Road continues to soar.
Reiterating Hume council’s call for state and federal authorities to act, mayor Helen Patsikatheodorou said 24,395 vehicles were using the road north of Melbourne Airport every day.
More than 2600 extra vehicles are now travelling through Bulla, up 12.4 per cent from last year, and the council has been pushing for the duplication of Sunbury Road and construction of a Bulla bypass.
‘‘These vehicles must negotiate the narrow bridge which traverses across Deep Creek, and it can be a very dangerous commute,’’ Cr Patsikatheodorou said.
Lancefield’s Gary Allen is among those who have started taking the long way round, via rural Konagaderra Road, in a bid to avoid Bulla’s peak hour traffic snarls.
‘‘I used to get to the [Sunbury Road] roundabout at 5.30am and there’d be so much traffic going that way,’’ he said. ‘‘Especially through Bulla … it’s just a lot easier to avoid it completely.’’
Cr Patsikatheodorou warned things would get worse, with plans for 14,000 new houses east of Sunbury and thousands of extra homes on Melbourne-Lancefield Road.
VicRoads regional director Vince Punaro previously said plans are under way for a link between Melbourne Airport and the future outer metropolitan ring road, including a bypass of Bulla.
‘‘The Melbourne Airport link and Bulla bypass is … a long-term project and will ultimately consist of six traffic lanes and include off-road shared bicycle and pedestrian paths.’’
