SYDNEY, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Victoria's Port of Melbourne, which is part-owned by a Chinese consortium, is set to receive a huge boost from the state government, with a 1.9 billion U.S. dollars road to be built to accommodate the port's rapid growth.
The "Freight Link" will travel for five km from the bottom of the West Gate Bridge through Port Melbourne and join with the planned Western Distributor toll road.
The government proposes to roughly triple the Port of Melbourne's capacity to between 7 to 8 million shipping containers a year to extract maximum value from the facility.
But the move may come at a cost, with the new road set to increase traffic congestion in the inner city as well as new suburbs planned for the Fisherman's Bend area where 80,000 people are expected to soon be housed.
Increases in traffic, noise and pollution will be many of the consequences for these communities, with night-time freight movement seen as one solution to reducing some of those problems.
Analysis done by logistics experts believe increasing the operating capacity of the port by two to five times will increase community conflicts and infrastructure problems within a decade.
While the report by engineering consultancy Jacobs suggesting the road does need to be built with the pace of growth in the container trade, experts have warned that sophisticated planning will be needed.
Professor of Urban Policy at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Jago Dodson told Fairfax Media on Friday "If the port is going to intensify its operations for the increased demand for freight travel, then very clear strategy is needed so we don't end up with very poor outcomes."
