THE opening of the Mordialloc Freeway has helped reduce the number of serious car crashes on surrounding roads, a new report has revealed.
The Mordialloc Freeway, a nine-kilometre road linking the Mornington Peninsula Freeway in Aspendale Gardens to the Dingley Bypass in Dingley Village, opened in November 2021. Major Road Projects Victoria has since commissioned an independent assessment of the completed project.
Arup Australia conducted the assessment. It found that since the freeway opened, the crash rate by fatal and serious injuries has reduced by 30 percent on parallel arterial roads. Rear end crashes reduced by 14 percent.
The assessment also found that peak travel times on Boundary Road/Wells Road and Springvale Road had been reduced by up to 33 percent. Trips using the freeway to complete an equivalent journey were between 28 and 55 percent faster.
Major Road Projects Victoria program director Brendan Pauwels said that the Mordialloc Freeway project had “delivered some impressive travel time savings and safety improvements based on a recently completed independent benefits assessment.”
“In its first two years of operation, the project has delivered a safer, less-congested option for Melbourne’s south-east corridor that is actively taking freight off local roads and improving travel time within the network,” he said.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 29 November 2023