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7. Road Network Capacity

7.1 Study inputs
The assessment of road capacity at the Port of Melbourne has been undertaken by Jacobs for
Infrastructure Victoria. This section provides a summary of their findings, which has been limited
to SIDRA modelling of the road junctions immediately outside the port gates at Swanson and
Webb Dock terminals.

7.2 Swanson Dock

7.2.1 Overview

The Port of Melbourne Swanson Dock container terminals are connected to the external road
network via three main access routes:

1. Appleton Dock Rd, which leaves Footscray Rd via a grade separated interchange at the
north eastern corner of the precinct.
2. Mackenzie Rd, at the north western corner, which connects to Sims St, and Footscray Rd
via grade separated intersections. Sims St runs north To Dynon Rd.

3. Dock Link Road which also links to Footscray and Dynon road to the north.

Footscray Rd provides direct connection to the freeway network via Citylink, although many port
trucks reportedly use alternative arterial roads that avoid tolls

These arterial roads include Whitehall St, Francis St and Williamstown Rd are to the west, and
Footscray Rd, Dudley St, Wurundjeri Way to the south east. The main roads are indicated in
Figure 22.

At present Coode Rd provides an internal connection between SDE and SDW to the north of
Swanson Dock basin but is seen as a constraint affecting ease of access to the rail sidings to
the north of Coode Rd from the main terminals. However, there are plans by DPW to close
Coode Rd west of Dock Link Rd, and Patrick is understood to have considered closing Coode
Rd between Appleton Dock Rd and Phillips Rd. Both of these proposals would provide better
linkages between the container terminal yards and the proposed MIRT site (refer Section 8.7).

It is generally concluded that the stevedore entry and exit gates do not pose constraints on truck
access and handling at the stevedore terminal currently (refer Section 5.4). Queue
accommodation is understood to only be needed when the capacity of the terminal yard
equipment is less than that needed to satisfy the volume of trucks booked with the Vehicle
Booking System (VBS) timeslots.

Port truck traffic has however been a longstanding cause of tension for residents in the inner
west of Melbourne, particularly on Francis St, Somerville Rd and Williamstown Rd. VicRoads
has recently imposed curfews on trucks on Francis St and Somerville Rd in an effort to reduce
social and amenity impacts. The curfew has caused inefficiencies in night-time logistics
operations and resulted in additional cost to importers and exporters as trucks have to longer
travel distances and toll costs across the City Link.

There have been numerous State Government plans to provide alternative truck routes that
cause less amenity impacts in the inner west, with the recent Transurban proposal for ‘Western
Distributor’ being most recent. While solutions continue to be explored, port traffic on inner west
roads is likely to remain a significant issue for the new port owner.

In this assessment, the Western Distributor is assumed to be constructed.

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 7.2.2 Key inputs to the capacity assessment

Table 27 summarises the inputs and assumptions that have been used in the road intersection
capacity assessment (Source: Jacobs).
Table 27 Swanson Dock modelling inputs

Input / Description
Assumption

As per Western Distributor Reference Design available on the project website

Intersection
layout (http://wdmap.u-c.com.au/imap07/) and confirmed in discussions with the
Western Distributor Authority (WDA), layout diagram provided in Appendix A.
It is assumed that Dock Link Road and Coode Road (western end) will be
closed.
Mackenzie Road ramps Appleton Dock Road ramp

Appleton Dock Road: Using a starting point of the current phasing at Appleton
Phasing
Dock, this was updated using professional judgement to minimise overall
vehicle delays at the intersection with a fixed cycle time of 120 seconds
(advice from WDA).
Mackenzie Road: Optimised to minimise overall vehicle delays at the
intersection with a fixed cycle time of 120 seconds (advice from WDA).

Volumes on Footscray Road taken from the 2031 VITM Reference Case
Traffic
Volumes Port-related traffic estimated by Jacobs
Traffic from Dynon rail yards is assumed to have disappeared by 2031 and
has not been included in the intersection analysis.

Truck traffic movements were estimated by Jacobs using a first principles

Classification
approach, main data sources were Port of Melbourne truck surveys, GHD
(2010) and professional observations. The following vehicle classification 30
breakdown for all traffic in and out of Swanson Dock has been adopted for
2016 and all future years:

15% semitrailers

30High Performance Freight Vehicles (HPFV) have not been allocated a separate category as the timing and
scale of the expected uptake is uncertain

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