The 40-year fight over where the missing ‘north-east link’ of the Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) will be built continues.
Banyule City Council told the North East Link Authority it prefers ‘corridor option c’, whilst Nillumbik Shire Council told the authority it prefers ‘option a’.
Banyule City Mayor, Councillor Tom Melican spoke with Jon Faine on ABC Radio Melbourne’s morning program on Monday morning.
“Council have a long-held view that the north-east link [is] required.
“We should look at option c which [Banyule] council is to support … that is the original route and completes the orbital link.
“We will support option c.”
“[It’s] Council’s preferred option as it provides an orbital connection from the Metropolitan Ring Road at Greensborough to Eastlink, south of Ringwood.
“Option a is simply a northern freeway to the city and does not fulfill the project’s objective to complete an orbital ring road and will only add to existing congestion,” Cr Melican said.
Nillumbik council have “a strong preference” for corridor a, but seek further investigation of corridor b. Corridors c and d should be ruled out entirely.
The ‘missing link’ of the Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) was first proposed in Premier Bolte’s 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan. Various proposed routes appeared in almost every edition of the Melways since.
Shire residents voiced their opposition to the proposed ring road in the 1970s, telling The Valley Voice in 1977 that “… it [ring road] would never work.”
The Diamond Valley Shire (now Banyule City) and Shire of Eltham (now Nillumbik Shire) were opposed to a ring road in the 1970s, throughout the 1980s and continued opposing a ‘north-east link’ since proposed again in the 1990s after the Plenty Road to Greensborough Bypass section of the Metropolitan Ring Road (M80) opened in 1994.
