Message loud and clear: ‘we want noise barriers’

By Jim Mynard
CASEY mayor Neil Lucas wants VicRoads to more seriously consider building noise barriers needed along the Berwick Bypass in the Soldiers Road area.
He successfully moved last month that the council write to VicRoads asking for an update on the situation.
The ongoing saga continued this week with more calls for the barriers.
Cr Lucas said some areas along the freeway did not have noise barriers and people were entitled to be protected from freeway noise.
He told the council people were not being protected.
“You can see right into private back yards from the freeway,” he said.
Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato last month wrote to Minister for Transport Peter Batchelor strongly advocating action on the work.
The Casey Roads and Infrastructure Group (CRAIG) in September asked VicRoads to explain when a decision on the exact amount of funding for the retrofit of barriers would be made.
The Beaconsfield in Casey Residents’ Action Group (BICRAG) also wrote to VicRoads on 31 October expressing further concern about the situation.
BICRAG wrote: “What a sad indictment it will be for the Berwick Bypass area to be looking like an unwanted appendage when the current Hallam Bypass and eventual Pakenham Bypass display and will display modern state-of-the-art noise attenuation and safety barriers.
“One begs to even ask what the residents of the Brookvale and surrounding area did to be treated like second-class citizens,” the letter said.
Ms Lobato has asked the Minister to arrange for new noise measurements to be taken and for new counts to be taken on the number of residents living along the freeway in the Berwick-Beaconsfield area.
“I would also like an explanation as to why the priorities ranked four, five and six in August, costing a total $5.5 million, have not yet been funded when a lower-ranked project costing more and affecting fewer properties was funded,” she said.
“The issue of noise barriers in Berwick and Beaconsfield will not go away.”