Author: Mike Hast

THE 80km/h speed restrictions on Peninsula Link freeway near the Baxter twin freeway service centres will revert to 100km/h when the northbound servo is opened, says a Peninsula Link spokeswoman. The southbound servo opened in late July but the speed limit on the freeway remains at 80. In July, a spokesman for service centre owner AA Holdings said it was hoped the northbound centre would be “ready by December”. The two centres are costing AA Holdings about $30 million including two new lanes on a freeway bridge as well as on and off ramps. The final task at the northbound…

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ALMOST three years after opening in January 2013, Peninsula Link freeway will get directional and tourism signs that were omitted from the original brief for the $850 million road. The signs come courtesy of intense lobbying by federal Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson and peninsula tourism officials, and will be installed in time for this “year’s peak summer holiday period”, Mr Billson said. About $175,000 of the cost will come from a federal Coalition government grant organised by Mr Billson in what some people will see as an unfair cost burden as the freeway is a private public partnership between…

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THE Rosie and Luke Batty story was launched yesterday in Melbourne and Australians will again be forced to confront the reality of family violence. Rosie Batty: A Mother’s Story tells the harrowing story of the events of Wednesday 12 February 2014 at Tyabb Central Recreation Reserve and the 18 months since. Peninsula resident Ms Batty rose to unwanted prominence following the killing of her son Luke by his father at cricket practice in Tyabb on that day. Greg Anderson was shot dead by one of four police officers from Mornington police station soon after when he confronted them with a…

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THE southbound freeway service centre on Peninsula Link at Baxter is scheduled to open on Thursday. It will end controversy that has lasted more than five years and saw Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors butt heads with the well-connected developer AA Holdings as well as former roads minister Terry Mulder and former planning minister Matthew Guy, who approved an amendment to the shire’s planning scheme to enable the centres to be built and ignored the shire council’s desire to stop commercial buildings in the green wedge. The southbound servo is a “twin” and its northbound version will likely open in December.…

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PORT Phillip Heads will have to be widened and deepened with a massive project that will make the controversial 2008-09 dredging pale into insignificance if the state government goes ahead with a 70-year lease of the Port of Melbourne, says peninsula MP Martin Dixon. Mr Dixon was speaking in the Parliament last week as the controversy over the government’s port bill reached fever pitch with the Opposition and Greens vowing to block the bill in the Upper House. The Port of Melbourne Lease Transaction Bill 2015 passed the Lower House last Thursday but the government does not have the numbers…

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