Southern Grampians pushes “expensive” plan to re-route trucks and improve bus services in Hamilton

Getting heavy vehicles out of Hamilton’s CBD is still a long-term goal, but Southern Grampians councillors have been warned creating an alternative route for trucks would be an “expensive exercise”.

What happened: Southern Grampians Shire Council signed off on the Hamilton Moves Transport Plan at last Tuesday’s council meeting, which sets out future improvements for roads, footpaths, cycling, public transport and heavy vehicles.

• One of the biggest ambitions is to eventually move heavy vehicles away from the CBD as council presses on with major upgrades to the town’s central streetscape and new community hub.

How heavy? Heavy vehicles passing through Hamilton’s CBD are mainly large freight trucks such as semi-trailers, which use the town as part of broader state-wide freight routes.

• While the town’s northern alternative heavy vehicle route was partly modified last year to remove non-local heavy traffic, the southern route and Cox Street corridor continue to carry trucks through and around the CBD.

Easier said than done: Infrastructure and sustainability director Marg Scanlan said a diverted road for trucks would not be straightforward, likely requiring significant funding contributions from the state or federal government.

🗣️“An alternative route would be an expensive exercise, and that's certainly been identified as advocacy with the department, to which we need to do quite a bit of work with them”.

Pushing for more buses: Public transport remains a major challenge for the town. Councillor Helen Henry said Hamilton was still among the state's poorest-served regional centres for public transport.

🗣️“That has an incredible impact on people who are trying to access medical care or further education,” she said.

🗣️“It baffles me that we cannot get our young people down to our university and our two TAFEs that are only an hour and a bit away for them to access educational opportunities, so I think there's still a lot of work to be done.”

The background: The transport plan grew out of community consultation that began in 2022 and has already delivered a range of projects, including heavy vehicle route changes, road safety improvements, footpath upgrades and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• Councillor Jayne Manning said more than five kilometres of footpaths had been delivered through the town’s missing links program, along with reduced speed limits, raised crossings for trains and safety improvements around Lake Hamilton.