Mr SYMON (9:51 AM) —Since I last spoke in the House on this issue on 14 May this year there have been many changes around the site of the new railway underpass on Springvale Road in Nunawading. It is a $140 million project jointly funded with $80 million from the federal government and $60 million from the state government. It was a key commitment made by federal Labor in the 2007 election campaign and we, in partnership with the Victorian state Labor government, are delivering on that commitment.

VicRoads announced the alliance partners for the project in May and major construction works have now started on the project. The surrounding area has changed markedly in only the last month. On 29 July I visited the site with the state member for Mitcham, Tony Robinson, to inspect the site and witness the driving of the first of 383 pile holes required for the retaining walls of the underpass. Including the onsite project headquarters, I am informed there are around 130 people working on the project. This is a great boost to the civil construction sector in Melbourne, along with the many local businesses in Nunawading who are seeing an increase in the number of their daily customers—particularly takeaway shops, newsagents and the local KFC.

Because works have started at this time of the year, the timing of the construction will mean that temporary closure of the rail service between Blackburn and Mitcham can be done at the quietest time of the year—that is, over the Christmas holidays. There will still be disruption. Hopefully it is minimised to a period of around four weeks. The rail line itself should be under Springvale Road by late January 2010. And the remainder of the project will be completed by early to mid 2010.

The remainder of the project includes a new Nunawading station and it will be a premium station that is staffed from first train to last. Provision is made for a third track and a third platform, both through the underpass and at the station. For those who know Nunawading station at the moment, it is a building built back in the early 1960s—very draughty, very cold and very commuter unfriendly. Also, one of the features of the Nunawading station—being a suburban station—is that it has a large amount of parking space. Whilst construction goes on not all of that is available, but once it is finished the same number of spaces will be available as there are now.

Residents in the outer east have been waiting a very long time for news that something is finally being done to fix Springvale Road. This project is real and it is happening right now. It is creating jobs for our area and improving infrastructure for the residents and commuters in the federal electorate of Deakin. Not only that, but thousands of residents in the outer east and in the surrounding suburbs will also benefit from the reduction in congestion and the ease of travelling to and from work.