Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Carers and Volunteers) (09:48): On 29 September the vastly improved Donnybrook Road–Mitchell Street intersection in Kalkallo was officially reopened after a short but intense two-week construction blitz which has completely transformed the intersection.

This $6 million project has brought a huge amount of relief to local commuters with travel times from the exit of the Cloverton estate onto the Hume Freeway cut from an average of 46 minutes to just over 2 minutes.

This relatively simple but absolutely effective upgrade includes a new dedicated left-turn slip lane for southbound travel onto the Hume Freeway as well as widening of the freeway on-ramp, relocation of street lighting and the modification of the roundabout.

Since the intersection opened residents have been in contact with my office to pass on just how much these upgrades have improved their daily commutes to work and to the school drop-off.

Last year I sponsored a petition calling for funding to deliver this incredibly important piece of infrastructure which was intended to provide interim relief pending the future duplication of Donnybrook Road and signalisation of the intersection.

The petition received more than 1300 signatures from local residents, demonstrating just how important this issue is to my local community. That is why I am thrilled that this project is finally complete. The project provides the much-needed relief that residents had been calling for, but I know there is much more to do.

I thank the more than 2200 community members who signed the recent petition calling for funding to commence the future duplication and signalisation works, and I will continue to work with them and continue to advocate for these works that are needed for this growing community.