Council pushes state government to help finish City Rd Master Plan

Sean Car & Jon Fleetwood

The City of Melbourne is urging the state government to allocate appropriate funding to complete long-awaited revitalisation works as part of the City Road Master Plan.   

The council will request $26 million in the next state budget to transform City Rd West (between Power and Clarendon streets) “into a great central street” and improve safety along City Rd East. 

Councillors unanimously endorsed the draft budget submission request for actions one and three of the master plan at the August 20 Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting as part of an update on the vision’s six action items. 

Adopted by the council way back in 2016, the original timeline set out in the City Road Master Plan earmarked full completion by 2025. Sadly, progress revitalising the state-managed road has proven much slower than hoped. 

While the council has been able to deliver on action five of the master plan – connecting City Rd to the gardens, thanks to upgrades along Southbank Boulevard and Kavanagh St – the remaining action items all remain either partially completed or untouched. 

As part of its submission to the next Victorian State Budget, the council will request $26 million from Treasurer Tim Pallas to deliver the two actions that the Department of Transport and Planning (DPT) are responsible for. 

Those include action one, arguably the most important mission of the master plan, which is to reimagine and transform City Rd west of Power St into a great central street by constructing bike lanes, slowing traffic and upgrading the streetscape. 

According to the report tabled on August 20, the council estimates works for action one to cost $18.3 million.

Meanwhile, action three seeks to make City Rd east of Power St safer and easier to traverse, through a range of streetscape and carriageway upgrades, which the council estimates to cost $7.7 million. 

Speaking on August 20, Lord Mayor Nick Reece called on both the state and federal governments to step up. 

“The people of Australia’s most densely populated suburb deserve some support so that we can see this area enjoy the same high quality of life that we see in other suburbs across our great municipality,” Cr Reece said. 

Despite supporting the final motion, the council’s chair of planning and outgoing Cr Rohan Leppert raised some concern about the budget submissions, arguing that it needed to be “significantly more robust”. 

“I know I’m about to become a political Wayne Duck, but I do hope that this council, if it is going to represent the Southbank community, does not let go until City Rd is upgraded,” Cr Leppert said.   

Despite the economic challenges faced by the state government, Cr Leppert said the City Rd upgrades were matters of “paramount” importance due to the road’s notoriety as an exceptionally unsafe part of the city. 

The Lord Mayor said that the way City Road currently operated was “completely unacceptable”. 

“Southbank is the most densely populated suburb in Melbourne and City Rd should be a beautiful high street through that suburb. Instead, it is a multi-lane highway that carries awful B-double trucks,” Cr Reece said. 

Despite City Rd’s status as a state-managed arterial, the council has managed to complete a significant number of projects as part of the master plan to date in areas where it has authority. 

While delivering action five of the master plan, to “connect the gardens”, the council installed a new signalised pedestrian crossing at Alexandra Gardens. It has also removed slip lanes near Southbank Boulevard and installed new zebra crossings at Balston and Clarke streets. 

In May, the council also secured a long-awaited lease of the Kings Way undercroft from DPT, which it has since consulted the community on as part of action item two – to reimagine the area as community and recreational space. 

However, while work is under way to “identify and apply for” the $5.85 million required to revitalise the undercroft, Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) president Tony Penna said much of the master plan remained in “limbo”. 

“Councillors have had since 2016 to compile the funding plan for this project,” Mr Penna said. 

The council has completed the majority of action six of the master plan – expanding the bicycle network in Southbank – having spent $15 million on bike lanes along surrounding Kavanagh and Balston streets, as well as Southbank Boulevard. 

It said the remaining component of action six – a new signalised crossing between Boyd Park and the Kings Way undercroft – was “planned for delivery in 2025” at a cost of $400,000. 

As for the last remaining action item four – “connect City Rd to the Arts Centre and Yarra River” – the council said it was working with the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAPco) as part of its current transformation of the precinct. •