Other Measures

MTAG has identified a range of other measures that we think would help reduce the impact of trucks on the Maribyrnong community.

Turn the old Footscray Market site into a logistics hub

  • Move container yards from Yarraville, Brooklyn and Tottenham to the old Footscray Market site on Footscray Road. This would significantly reduce truck traffic on Buckley St and Moore St, giving those residents their nights and weekends back.  The broader community benefit of this proposal must be taken into account when choosing a tenderer for this site. (State Government)

Develop a port clean air action plan

Implement environmental initiatives at the Port of Melbourne similar to the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, including:

  • A Clean Truck Program to phase out old trucks that do not meet current emission standards. (State Government/Port of Melbourne)
  • Provide financial incentives for ships with newer engines. (State Government/Port of Melbourne)
  • Provide onshore power so ships aren’t idling on diesel while in port. (State Government/Port of Melbourne)
  • Fund air filtration for local schools impacted by port related pollution. (State Government/Port of Melbourne)

Reduce tolls on Bolte Bridge

  • Exempt trucks from night time tolls on the Bolte Bridge, with any loss in revenue to be reimbursed by the State Government. (State Government / CityLink)
  • Cap tolls on the Bolte Bridge to a daily maximum for trucks making multiple journeys along the route, with any loss in revenue to be reimbursed by the State Government. (State Government / CityLink)

Curfews

  • Enforce curfews through allocation of appropriate resources and increased monitoring by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. (NHVR)
  • Implement an education campaign, in conjunction with the VTA, to educate drivers about curfews and appropriate routes for trucks. (VicRoads / VTA)
  • Install signs at strategic locations advising of the truck curfews and recommending preferred alternative routes for trucks. (VicRoads)
  • Extend the school crossing time curfews on Somerville Road to include the time in-between that children are in school. (VicRoads)
  • Introduce night time and weekend trucks curfews on Williamstown Road, Yarraville and Buckley Street, Footscray. (VicRoads)
  • Extend curfews to include the entire weekend on Francis Street, Somerville Road and Moore Street. (VicRoads)
  • Increase the penalty for truck drivers breaking a curfew to $563 (the same fine as for dropping a lit cigarette butt). (State Government)

Reduce Air Pollution Impacts on Local Schools

  • Implement measures to improve air quality for children in schools on freight routes similar those contained in the US EPA publication ‘Best Practices for Reducing Near-Road Pollution Exposure at Schools’.  This document contains simple and useful strategies to help schools located on major trucking routes to reduce the air pollution exposure on students.  (EPA Victoria)

Remove Somerville Road from designated OD routes

  • Remove Somerville Road from designated Over Dimension vehicle routes (acknowledging that Somerville Road may still be approved for use by large OD vehicles on some occasions when other suitable routes are not available). (VicRoads)

Truck control barriers on Somerville Road

  • Introduce truck control measures and barriers on Somerville Road (outstands, roundabouts, chicanes etc). (Maribyrnong City Council)

Traffic Calming Measures

  • Implement 40 or 50 km/h speed zones on Buckley Street, Williamstown Road and Moore Street. (VicRoads)

Truck tracking

  • Require installation of Intelligent Access Program (IAP) telematics on all trucks to determine whether trucks are speeding or “off route”, and to enable truck curfews and bans to be enforced easily. (State Government)

Air Monitoring

  • Carry out air testing on Somerville Road near primary schools to get current data on students’ exposure to diesel related pollution. (EPA)
  • Carry out air testing in a select number of houses located on truck routes to get current data on the impact of diesel related pollution on indoor air quality. (EPA)

Noise reduction

  • Enforce the noise standard for engine brakes by installing noise monitoring camera systems on key truck routes (Francis Street, Moore Street, Williamstown Road, Buckley Street). (VicRoads)
  • Undertake regular road maintenance so that poorly-maintained road surfaces and potholes do not contribute to noise from trucks. (VicRoads / Maribyrnong City Council)

Road safety

  • Implement a “Sharing the road with pedestrians, cyclists and cars” education campaign for truck drivers. (VTA)
  • Undertake road safety blitz targeting poor driving by maverick truck drivers (speeding, running red lights, cutting corners, breaking curfews). (Victoria Police)
  • Undertake regular roadworthy checks of trucks travelling through the area. (VicRoads)

Air quality guidelines

  • Develop a framework to ensure that the local air quality complies with Victoria’s new air pollution guidelines which came into effect in 2016 (EPA)
  • Develop a National Air Pollution Prevention Act – Commonwealth legislation that establishes an effective framework for air pollution laws. (Federal Government)

Location of container yards

  • Undertake a freight and land use study to explore the strategic resettlement of container yards to locations better served by rail and suitable roads. (Maribyrnong City Council)

Freight efficiencies

  • Work with industry to achieve freight efficiencies, including moving more freight on freeways at night. (Port of Melbourne)
  • Streamline port logistics. (Port of Melbourne)

Freight onto rail

  • Establish metropolitan intermodal terminals and the Western Interstate Freight Terminal and move more freight onto rail.(State Government/Port of Melbourne)
  • Ensure stevedoring costs for rail are not higher than road. (State Government)

Public transport

  • Improve public transport in Melbourne’s west to get cars off freeways and provide more capacity for trucks. (State Government)

Greening the West

  • Target greening of rail and truck transport corridors in the municipality as a priority to help absorb and reduce diesel particulate pollution. (Maribyrnong City Council)

Tottenham / Brooklyn distributor

  • Commit to building direct truck links from the industrial areas of Tottenham and Brooklyn to major freight routes (Western Ring Road and the West Gate Freeway). (State Government)