Why a Melbourne roundabout is labelled a victory — and what it could teach other growth areas

This new roundabout may look unremarkable from the air, but its completion is a lifechanger for locals. (ABC News: Peter Drought)

Ally Watson’s morning commute used to include at least 20 minutes of sitting stationary in traffic, in one long line of cars with their brake lights on.

Some days, the queue to get out of her housing estate could stand still for closer to an hour.

Some locals told the ABC they used the time to wonder whether they had made a mistake moving to Kalkallo, a rapidly growing area in Melbourne’s outer north.

Ms Watson said it was stressful, but also dangerous.

“When you’re driving in traffic when people are very frustrated, it’s very difficult — people aren’t necessarily doing the right thing all of the time,” she said.

As the population of Kalkallo grew from a village of 105 people in the 2016 census to more than 5,000 in 2021, the traffic grew with it.

“This is the only road for thousands of people, so the wait time to get out was getting very, very long,” Ms Watson said.

Analysis from Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) found the average wait time was about 40 minutes just to get out of the estate and onto Donnybrook Road.

The single-lane Donnybrook Road is the only way to get from a number of new estates to the Hume Freeway, or to school or work.

The gridlock, which once saw a pregnant woman stuck in traffic for more than an hour as she went into labour, was representative of what some advocates labelled a failure to plan for rapid growth in outer suburban areas.

About 30 minutes shaved off commute

In September, MRPV shut off the local access point to the Hume Freeway for two weeks, so they could address part of the cause of the gridlock.

They added in a slip lane, so city-bound commuters turning left to get on to the freeway from Kalkallo no longer have to wait for a break in the traffic coming from the right, also heading for the city.

That traffic includes people coming from Mickleham, which was Australia’s fastest-growing suburb in 2018.

Analysis from MRPV, provided to the ABC, showed there had been an average reduction of 30 minutes in the morning peak for Kalkallo commuters since the slip lane went in.

MRVP project director Adrian Furner said the result was “overwhelming”, given it was fast-tracked over three months, including design, procurement and a two-week construction blitz.

Speaking to the ABC during a weekday morning peak hour, he said “to see the way the intersection is flowing and clearing itself, it’s really positive to see the impact to people’s lives”.

“They can spend a bit more time having breakfast, and then getting on the road,” he said.

Many locals told the ABC they were surprised by how much the roundabout had improved commute times.

“It’s a miracle!” one said.

But they all agreed, and so does Adrian Furner — there is much more work to do.

Roads just one pressure point

The area, which also includes the suburbs of Donnybrook, Mickleham, Beveridge and Wallan will be home to 380,000 people and 50,000 jobs when it’s complete, according to the local Hume City Council.

Everyone acknowledges more infrastructure is needed.

The chair of the National Growth Areas Alliance (NGAA), Matthew Deeth, said hyper-local infrastructure projects, like the Kalkallo slip lane, are “fundamental to the areas we live in”.

“These are the projects that make those key little meaningful contributions — to make it easier to get to local jobs, schools or public transport,” he said.

Cr Deeth, who is also the Deputy Mayor of the Wollondilly Shire on Sydney’s booming south-west fringe, said listening to local governments and community groups is key.

“When you see proactive people genuinely focused on a positive solution, they’re the people you want to partner with,” he said.

Ally Watson points to the lack of footpaths and that the bus only travels part-way into the estate, leaving new residents with an hour’s walk to the nearest bus stop.

Most of all, while other exits to the estate are being built, she wants the local road connecting all the housing estates to be duplicated.

A petition she started to duplicate Donnybrook Road, sponsored by the local Labor MP, Ros Spence, attracted 2,243 signatures.

“People are moving in along here, not just every week, but every day,” Ms Watson said.

Mr Furner said early planning for that work has begun.

“I’m confident that over the next year we’ll be looking at what we can do with the future improvements of Donnybrook Road,” he said.

Other locals told the ABC traffic could still be tricky coming home in the afternoons, and crossing the Hume Freeway from the Mickleham side was a growing problem.

MRPV acknowledged some locals were concerned the new roundabout has slowed traffic coming from the Mickleham direction, and said more will need to be done to upgrade infrastructure in the quickly-growing area.

‘You need to be together’

Ms Watson recently received the Hume Council’s community leadership award, and has been speaking to other local groups about how to get the infrastructure they need.

“Be really consistent and be persistent, but really importantly, you need to be together,” she said.

She said it was important to target advocacy to the people who could enact change, by advocating to local MPs and councils or signing petitions.

“It’s been a really good example of where the community has stood up and said, ‘this is a problem, we need help, we cannot change this ourselves,” she said.

“It’s not only less stressful in the morning, it’s also confidence that if we do say something, people can listen and we can get change happening.”