Meeting bid to seal road

By Jim Mynard
CASEY council will invite property owners abutting Dalmore Road, Tooradin to a public meeting to discuss a special charge for sealing the road.
Residents in the area have expressed concerns about the unsealed section of Dalmore Road within the City of Casey.
The Shire of Cardinia sealed the road to its boundary with Casey, but residents said the road should have been completed to the South Gippsland Highway.
They said during a series of community meetings that the councils should have cooperated to have the road finished under one contract.
City of Casey’s Balla Balla Ward councillor Colin Butler on Tuesday, 16 August last year asked for a report on the unsealed section between the Cardinia/Casey boundary and the highway.
He asked that a report consider the cost of construction and possible sources of funding, adoption of a construction method and financing option Cardinia used, cost of future maintenance, and problems that could arise on the road given the increased traffic that would result after the Pakenham Bypass opened.
The council on Tuesday, 20 September considered a petition asking that the road be sealed.
One issue facing the City of Casey is that Shire of Cardinia property owners were not required to share in the cost for sealing the road in their municipality.
Casey’s manager of engineering services, David Richardson, said in a report to the Tuesday, 20 December council meeting that Dalmore Road was already listed on the unsealed roads program.
Mr Richardson said the road was experiencing traffic volumes of 420 vehicles a day, but with construction of the road within Cardinia and completion of the bypass at the end of 2007 usage would increase significantly.
The council has agreed to start the process of a special charge scheme on a costing of half each between the council and property owners.
The cost of sealing the section is expected to be about $615,000.