A B-double truck turns off the Midland Hwy into Carroll Rd, taking up its entire width to make the manoeuvre, as a small hatchback sinks into deep potholes beyond the asphalt’s chewed edges to make room for it.
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It’s only a short road and bears an outdated ‘rural access road’ classification despite big business booming on both its Shepparton and Shepparton East-postcoded sides.
Once upon a time, it was out in the sticks and minimally used, but as Foott Waste’s logistics general manager Zane Foott says, “even Wyndham St was once a dirt road”.
Between the four businesses along Carroll Rd — Darryl Twitt Motors, Foott Waste (two facilities), All Farm Gates and Goulburn Murray Local Learning & Employment Network — there are around 200 staff employed, who all use the road at least twice a day arriving at and leaving from work.
More if they run errands or leave for their lunch breaks.
Daily, the car dealership receives high-end luxury cars from vehicle transport trucks, the farm gate supplier receives heavy farm gate deliveries from trucks and the waste facility sends more than 60 trucks of its own down the road, for a combined estimated total of around 100 truck movements each day.
Add the heavily increased light vehicle and trailer traffic frequenting Foott Waste’s Container Deposit Scheme can and bottle recycling plant on the same road, and the landholders suggest there are more than 500 total vehicle movements a day.
They are calling on Greater Shepparton City Council for an upgrade before someone gets killed.
Mr Foott, who regularly drives Foott Waste trucks to and from the site, said the end of the road was particularly dangerous.
“If a car is leaving, we can’t turn into the road, we have to wait on the highway and hold traffic up,” he said.
“You can get impatient drivers behind you. We’ve had a few near misses up at the intersection.
“It’s a miracle there hasn’t been a serious accident.”
The business owners said it was not unusual for vehicles to be stalled for 10 minutes waiting for a gap in traffic, only to make dicey decisions under pressure or when their patience ran out.
Darryl Twitt Motors dealer principal Jason Sherlock said he received numerous complaints from both service and sales customers.
The dealership is on the west side of Carroll Rd, in Shepparton, while one of its two service departments is on the east side, a single lane away, in Shepparton East.
He said it soured his customers’ experience when they had to drive their brand new cars off the showroom floor immediately on to a muddied and pot-holed road, reporting that poor drainage caused it to flood after rain, where it remained puddled throughout winter.
Mr Sherlock noted many Shepparton streets that he believed were previously in better condition than Carroll Rd had been resurfaced and upgraded with channels and kerbing replaced.
Jenny Foott said she and her husband, Peter Foott, had spent $10 million to build their facility at the end of the no-through road where council had suggested after she said it had knocked back planning permits in other areas due to people not wanting “a tip” next to them, despite the business’ operations dealing with clean waste.
“The Foott facility has brought major state contracts to the area,” Mrs Foott said.
“The CDS has been brought to the city by us. We invested in that for the benefit of the community and have put $3 million back into the community.
“We had 3000 people come through the can recycling facility in six days.”
She said all the landholders were locals and had invested heavily in the area.
“And we are all involved in the community, too,” All Farm Gates owner Debbie McColl added.
The landholders want to see the entire length of the road widened to two lanes, line-marked and proper drainage and kerbing installed.
“We’ve never had a road here. It’s not a rebuild, it’s a build,” Ms McColl said.
Council infrastructure director Gary Randhawa said council was reviewing its Road Management Plan and that “the hierarchy of road classifications would be reviewed in line with the new standards”, following the adoption of the plan.
Mr Randhawa said council did not have allocated funding for a Carroll Rd upgrade in its 2024-25 financial year budget.
“A co-contribution proposal is one of two proposals that have been discussed, although there has been no final determination made by council,” he said.
“Any final position of council will be determined in consultation with the stakeholders.”
Landholders said they had been told by council they would have to pay for up to 80 per cent of the overhaul, or a minimum of 60 per cent at best-case scenario, if they entered into the contribution scheme.
Mr Randhawa said council’s engineering and infrastructure teams were investigating the appropriate upgrade solution and associated costs.
He did not elaborate on what the second proposal presented to landholders entailed.
“Council has discussed the project with the property owners and will work through the process with them,” Mr Randhawa said.
Senior journalist