$125m poll roads pledge
Labor vow to spend up on duplication if elected
A SECOND section of Barwon Heads Rd would be duplicated via a $125m injection under a promise by federal Labor if it wins the next election.
It has pledged, if elected to power, to duplicate the road between Reserve Rd, Marshall, and Lower Duneed Rd, Connewarre, treat the project as a priority and include promised funds in its first budget.
Corangamite Labor MP Libby Coker said the lives of residents from Armstrong Creek and other areas of the Bellarine Peninsula would be better once the Barwon Heads Rd duplication was completed.
“They will be able to spend less time in the car, more time with family and friends, and the commute will be safer,” Ms Coker said.
“By 2031, Barwon Heads Rd is projected to carry up to 44,000 cars and trucks every day. This growth area will provide for 22,000 lots and a population of around 60,000 people.
“If we don’t build for that growth now, locals will be trapped in ever-growing gridlock.
“That’s why an Albanese Labor government would partner with the Victorian government to duplicate Barwon Heads Rd from Reserve Rd, past Armstrong Creek, to Lower Duneed Rd.
“This project will link up with stage 1 of the duplication, between Belmont and Reserve Rd, which the Victorian government is already busy constructing.”
Ms Coker claimed the project would “future-proof infrastructure across this growing region, creating local jobs in the construction phase and ensuring that working families can spend less time in the car and more time at home”.
Stage 1 of the Barwon Heads Rd duplication between Settlement Rd, Belmont, and Reserve Rd, Marshall, is expected to be completed by 2024 at a cost of $365m.
The longer stage 2 project would see about 5km of road duplicated to Connewarre.
Recent data from Infrastructure Australia revealed the completed stage 1 duplication would deliver travel time savings of $356m, vehicle operating savings of $187m and crash cost savings of $9.5m and said “the benefits of the project are likely to exceed the costs”.
The Barwon Heads Rd announcement is Labor’s most significant locally in the leadup to the next federal election and comes after it committed $20m to building an indoor pool at Drysdale if elected to government.