MORE than 100 Wyndham residents who attended a transport forum last week expressed concern rapid population growth combined with the municipality’s many narrow roads could lead to serious accidents.

The meeting in Hoppers Crossing was attended by Wyndham City councillors, including mayor Heather Marcus, Tarneit member and Minister for Roads and Ports Tim Pallas, representatives from the Department of Transport and VicRoads and Altona MP Jill Hennessy.

Community activist Lori McLean, who ran for Family First in the seat of Lalor at the federal election, was met with claps and cheers of support when she questioned why Wyndham’s housing estate developments were given the green light before any infrastructure was built to cater for the thousands of accompanying residents.

“Ballan Rd is a single road with mud along the sides. Tarneit Rd and Derrimut Rd to the Western Highway are too narrow,” she said.

“People are risking their lives every day on these dog tracks.

“They are too narrow. With traffic coming along at 100 km/h, if you go off the road, you’ve got nowhere to go.

“I am absolutely terrified if I drive along there. People overtake when it is not safe to do so.”

During the forum, one resident labelled the intersection of Tarneit and Sayers Rd as an “absolute shocker” and said it needed to be upgraded.

“I like to call it death corner,” he said.

A Wyndham City Council list of 22 sections of road within the municipality was handed out, including seven which VicRoads are “immediately” planning to upgrade, three which will have a network alternative implemented and others for which the planning concept has been commenced or prepared.

Another five road sections planning status were listed under “other priorities,” including the Princes Highway east of Derrimut Rd and Old Geelong Rd at Skeleton Creek.

Morris Rd from Heaths Rd to Hogans Rd and south of Sayers Rd and Heaths Rd from Derrimut Rd to Morris Rd were also on the “other priorities” list.

In a speech to the crowd, Mr Pallas highlighted several current and future transport projects in the West, which the State Government has poured billions of dollars into.

However, he acknowledged many were medium and long-term plans which “won’t make an immediate difference to congestion.”

Wyndham City Council CEO Kerry Thompson said the council had allocated $8.15 million towards the cost of upgrading existing roads in 2010/11 and was advocating to the State Government for more funding.