Residents of newly built suburb are being forced to queue for an hour just to leave their neighbourhood each morning because there’s only one way out.
The Victorian suburb of Kalkallo, 50km north of Melbourne, only has one road out of the new development, causing one-kilometre traffic jams during peak hours before and after work.
This wait is before drivers can even reach a main road to take them to work, school, shops and the hospital.
On the day she gave birth, mother Rebecca Clark says he was forced to wait for nearly 1.5 hours in traffic on her way to hospital before she got to a main road after her water broke.
‘I was worried anything could happen really, you don’t know what to expect as a first-time mum,’ she told ABC News. ‘The frustration is intense’.
‘I was trying to come up with a plan B — if I started having bad contractions I thought I could call an ambulance, but they’d be stuck in traffic too.’
Fortunately, she made it to hospital just in time to give birth to her son.
The problems facing residents of Kalkallo are rooted in the lack of roads in the newly developed area, as the infrastructure fails to keep pace with the rapid population growth.
Residents of Kalkallo, 50km north of Melbourne, have a commute from hell every morning, when it can take an hour just to get out of their Cloverton housing estate (pictured)
One resident Rebecca Clark said her waters broke at 8.45am and then had to wait in the queue for one-and-a-half hours before she could get onto the main road, unsure if she would make it to hospital in time
Residents of an outer Victorian suburban housing estate are queuing for more than an hour just to leave their neighbourhood as the daily kilometre plus queue highlights the huge issue with just a single road out of the estate
The problems facing residents of Kalkallo are rooted in the lack of roads in the newly developed area, as the infrastructure fails to keep pace with the rapid population growth
Evan Mulholland, who was elected to the Victorian upper house for the Northern Metropolitan Region last November, said the whole situation is a ‘catastrophe waiting to happen’
Evan Mulholland, who was elected to the Victorian upper house for the Northern Metropolitan Region last November, said the whole situation is a ‘catastrophe waiting to happen’.
‘Locals are frustrated, they’re stressed, and they’re stuck in their home or in traffic because of lousy planning by the state government,’ Mr Mulholland said.
‘Worryingly, after the recent grass fires at Beveridge and Donnybrook, residents are concerned that if there were a ‘leave now’ alert due to fire, they wouldn’t be able to get out.
‘It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.’
Residents grave fears for what would happen if there was an emergency after recent grass fires showcased the severity of the problem, with residents trapped on the road out of the housing estates
One resident said what is a seven-minute drive home from the local train station in any peak time takes upwards of 50 minutes
Another resident said what should be a seven-minute drive from the local train station takes more than 50 minutes during peak times.
Meanwhile, a mother said she was forced to leave the estate as her children would have meltdowns on the way to school each day while sitting in traffic.
On Facebook, many residents said they could ‘could never be on time’ while living in the suburb, with one even joking that he could offer helicopter trips out of the estate.
‘My family and I are offering short helicopter rides out of Kalkallo Estate until the end of the year,’ they joked. ‘If you want a quick and affordable way out of the estate, we have you covered.’
Others shared horror stories of working in the estate saying they ‘could never be on time’ while another jokingly offered weekday helicopter trips out of the estate
The idea was met with an abundance of people saying they would take up the offer at a price of up to $100 if it was true
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews weighed in on the issue last month, saying the roads had ‘obviously not been particularly well designed’.
‘I’m not sure if it’s an issue for the council, for VicRoads or the developer in the first instance,’ he said.
‘For safety reasons, as well as just the obvious frustration those residents would be experiencing, we’re more than happy to look at it and see if there’s anything we can do.’
Construction on a second road began last October but is not due to be completed until mid-2024, with a third road in and out of the estate in the planning phase.
The Victorian Department of Transport said the issue of access to the estate is a problem caused by the developer and local council not putting in the appropriate infrastructure in time.
They say when the estate was approved to be built in 2012, it outlined three access points to Donnybrook Road, but only one of those access points has been constructed.
The Department of Transport says they have commenced emergency works to try to ease congestion.
Temporary traffic signals have been installed and an upgrade to the roundabout has commenced, with residents hopeful this will provide some relief from the long delays.
Ian Wright, a professor at Western Sydney University, said while the ‘great Australian dream’ of affordable housing draws people to an an area, ‘poor planning’ is letting them down
Ian Wright, associate professor in the School of Science at Western Sydney University said while the ‘great Australian dream’ of affordable housing draws people to the outer suburbs, ‘poor planning’ is letting them down.
‘I think there is this absolute desperation for families (to get) a roof over (their) head. That Aussie dream, having a family, having your own house,’ he told Yahoo News.
‘Then there is this promise of ‘yeah, the high schools are coming, the shops will be coming, the train line will get extended’.
‘It’s all these promises and it’s just awful,’ he said.
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