Phillip Island Road: San Remo and Newhaven
Regional Roads Victoria has been seeking government funding for plans for San Remo – released in 2020.
In this second week of a new series – which explores planning: our future – we look at traffic and parking.
Phillip Island – and to a lesser extent San Remo – are natural bottlenecks and with the resident and tourist population growing annually, pinch points are quickly seen in congestion on roads and towns. Here we explore the pressures and possible solutions.
Regional Roads Victoria has been seeking government funding for plans for San Remo – released in 2020 – that include adding traffic lights to Marine Parade, widening the Phillip Island Road to four lanes between San Remo Parade and Bergin Grove, and even reclaiming a section of Western Port to accommodate the expansion.
Since 2012 residents have also been lobbying for improved internal roads to deal with massive housing subdivision growth, detailed in 2012 in Bass Coast Shire’s San Remo Access Strategy, including an extension of Shetland Heights Road to Wonthaggi.
RRV said future planning for the Phillip Island Road corridor included these internal roads.
The Newhaven plans included four lanes on the Phillip Island Road between two new roundabouts at Forrest Avenue and Boys Home Road. The plans have apparently been put on ice, however RRV has yet to confirm this.
A group of businesses – who were set to lose a chunk of land under compulsory acquisition as part of RRV’s plans – in 2020 said they were unable to support the road upgrade, saying RRV should not apply “city solutions” to “our magical island community.”
Planning: traffic and parking
It’s a simple formula: more residents and more tourists means more cars, more congestion and more parking problems.
Here are a few other examples of where traffic is reaching a tipping point.
