One of Melbourne's most notorious bottlenecks is set to get worse before it gets better. In the outer northern suburb of Kalkallo, residents are waiting hours in traffic jams on the only road running in and out of their housing estate.
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00:00 I'm in Calcallo in Melbourne's outer north.
00:04 This is one of the fastest growing areas in Australia and like many growth zones, the
00:09 infrastructure just has not kept up with the population growth.
00:13 This housing estate has thousands of homes and just the one road in and out.
00:18 And have a look at the traffic for the morning commute.
00:20 This is what residents say is a good day.
00:22 I just went for a walk and this queue of cars goes back about 500 metres.
00:28 We've spoken to kids who say they're exhausted from getting up early every morning to get
00:32 to school on time.
00:34 People who say they're constantly late for work.
00:36 And this queue of traffic can cost people an hour of just sitting in their car waiting
00:41 to get out of the housing estate.
00:43 Now the state government says they've got part of the solution coming up.
00:47 The issue is everyone's trying to get out of this housing estate and onto Donnybrook
00:51 Road and the problem is all the other housing estates are trying to get onto Donnybrook
00:55 Road as well.
00:56 So the state government says what they're going to do is close the freeway entrance
01:00 to get onto the Hume Freeway from Donnybrook Road for two weeks during the school holidays.
01:06 During that time they're going to upgrade that freeway entrance so there's a slip lane
01:09 for the roundabout.
01:11 That will improve traffic flow and residents say that is a really welcome move.
01:15 They have been waiting for that but they want other solutions as well.
01:18 They want a second exit from the housing estate.
01:21 That's due to happen next year but they want one that's going to come onto a different
01:25 road rather than Donnybrook Road.
01:27 They also want better public transport and active transport options too.
01:31 Donnybrook train station is just over there but there's no footpath to get there so you
01:35 really have to drive.
01:37 So residents really want more to be done but the state government is hoping that this short
01:41 term pain will lead to a bit of an ease to this traffic congestion here in Melbourne's
01:47 outer north.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]