Kooweerup braces for Easter traffic attack

By Melissa Grant
KOOWEERUP residents are bracing themselves for traffic gridlock this weekend as holidaymakers head down to Phillip Island and South Gippsland.
Police have warned they will be out in force to monitor the situation, issuing infringements to any motorist who breaks the road rules.
Kooweerup Township Committee chairman Ray Brown said locals were expecting the worse after vehicles banked up from the South Gippsland to Pakenham on Boxing Day caused traffic chaos in Kooweerup.
“We had traffic banked up for kilometres, all the way back towards Pakenham,” he remembered.
“There were people at the front of the queue (on Sybella Avenue) making a mad dash onto the South Gippsland Highway – it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens.”
Mr Brown said the traffic situation had only ‘intensified’ since Boxing Day and expected Kooweerup to be ‘chock-a-block’ with traffic on Thursday night, Good Friday and Easter Monday.
“I drove to Pakenham the other day and passed 27 trucks on the way,” he said. “Although at Easter time we hope not so many trucks are on the road.
“People are getting used to the Pakenham Bypass and more people are coming that way (through Kooweerup).”
Sergeant Nigel Atkins of Cardinia’s Traffic Management Unit (TMU) has warned that police would target speedsters and unroadworthy vehicles as part of numerous traffic operations.
“The might of the TMU will strike over the Easter weekend,” he said.
“There’s (operation) ‘Shaun the Sheep’, an enforcement tool to combat excessive speed in and around Healesville-Kooweerup Road, but that doesn’t limit them (police) to extend it to Ballarto Road and Kooweerup.”
Police will also be enforcing the Victoria-wide operation ‘Ageis IV’ that focuses on road safety – everything from heavy vehicles, fatigued drivers, young drivers and country road users.
They will also be targeting defective vehicles as part of ‘Operation Bucket’ on Easter Saturday.
“Warnings are not negotiable,” Sen Sgt Atkins said.
Mr Brown said without a Kooweerup Bypass, a set of traffic lights at the Pakenham Livestock Exchange was the only source of traffic relief for locals, particularly over holiday weekends.
“The traffic lights at the Livestock Exchange help give us a break in traffic,” he said.
“That’s our only saving grace, love them or hate them.”