Bay link bid ‘revived’

JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
VicRoads should include a Corio Bay crossing in plans to extend Geelong’s ring road extension to the Bellarine Peninsula, according to Mayor John Mitchell.
He revived the proposal, costed at $1.4 billion in 2002, at a Geelong Business Network breakfast last week.
Cr Mitchell said VicRoads was already carrying out a $300,000 feasibility study to extend the ring road from Surf Coast Highway to the peninsula.
“We’d like to complete the circle with a bay crossing as per the original eastern link proposal.”
Cr Mitchell said growth and development on the peninsula would support the project.
Cr Mitchell said the Bellarine extension from Surf Coast Highway was vital infrastructure but planning should also begin for a bay link.
“We have to get the dotted line on the map so developers know where the road will go,” he said.
“We’ll need an extra river crossing by then as well. The Bellarine extension will pick up traffic from Moolap, Ocean Grove, Queenscliff, Barwon Heads Rd and even Armstrong Creek.”
Cr Mitchell said the region’s growth rate meant planning for projects once considered generational had now shortened to timeframes of 10 or 12 years.
Former transport minister Peter Batchelor said in 2002 that the government had chosen to send the bypass west through an existing land reserve because an eastern route over the bay would be too expensive.
The eastern bypass proposal also faced environmental-based objections because it would cross a wetland with an international protection agreement. Proponents suggested various combinations of tunnels, causeways and bridges.
The feasibility study into the peninsula link will incorporate the outcome of a hearing panel next month on the ring road’s controversial 4C alignment to Surf Coast Highway. Armstrong Creek developers will fund the link from the highway to the Barwon River.
VicRoads acting regional director Sebastian Motta said the roads authority was working with City of Greater Geelong to identify “strategic opportunities”.
“This includes a long-term proposal to connect the Geelong ring road to the Bellarine Peninsula consistent with City of Greater Geelong’s future planning.”