EAST FREMANTLE locals want Fremantle Ports to crack down on car-carrying trucks taking short cuts past their homes.
Dianne Westall’s apartment complex backs onto East Street and she describes as “unbearable” the noise of trucks leaving Victoria Quay trying to avoid traffic lights at the corner of Beach and Queen Victoria Streets.
A few years back the port installed bollards to stop trucks turning right onto Beach Street but Ms Westall says the trucks are simply mounting the barriers.
“When a ship is in the harbour we count up to 20 trucks coming up East Street, carrying six-eight cars,” she told the Herald.
“Then in the middle of the night the empty trucks come thundering down the road to collect more cars from the wharf.
“This is despite the fact that road was constructed several years ago to prevent the trucks coming along this route.”
Beverley Ryan, who live upstairs from Ms Westall, says she is often jarred awake by rattling carriages rumbling past her home.
“If you are having a cup of coffee with someone, you can’t hear the other person speak,” she says.
“I’m sick of writing down number plates, because nobody listens.”
Ms Westall says she’s taken plates down too, and taken photos of trucks, which she has forwarded to Fremantle Ports.
She says the port told her it was planning to put in bollards at the entrance to the wharf to stop trucks turning left. Ms Westall says a year on nothing has happened.
“When I do take photo the drivers just give me the finger,” she says.
“Several times I have seen trucks go right over the traffic islands, causing cars to move out of the way. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Ports’ bugle Ainslie de Vos says height restriction barriers are planned by Main Roads to stop semi-trailers barrelling down East Street.
“Even the smaller trucks will have to turn right into Beach Street when leaving gate three and then use the link road to Canning Highway,” she says.
by BRENDAN FOSTER