Roads battle hits new level

Member for Lowan Emma Kealy has condemned a move by the Greens and Labor that she believes will prevent millions of dollars being directed into maintaining country roads.

Ms Kealy said the government and the Greens had blocked a move in State Parliament by the Coalition to change a Transport Legislation Amendment Bill 2018.

She said the Liberal-nationals proposal was aimed at directing more money into a country Victorian roads program.

Ms Kealy said the changes would have made sure 40 percent of revenue collected from speeding fines and trafficcamera offences went directly to regional and rural road maintenance, with a further 40 percent to maintain roads in outer suburban interface areas.

“Roads in country Victoria are getting worse and worse, but still the Andrews Labor government chose to block our efforts to increase maintenance funding,” she said.

“Labor’s funding cuts, while spending billions on metro projects in Melbourne, has left our roads falling apart, littered with potholes and crumbling road edges that are making it more dangerous to get around.”

The State Government, meanwhile, has opened its doors for its new country roads body, Regional Roads Victoria, and is confident it has started the ‘biggest road-maintenance blitz Victoria has ever seen’.

It has declared that Regional Roads Victoria will oversee more than $45-million of improvement works on western Victoria’s 5500-kilometre arterial road network this season, with 25 individual projects scheduled.

The government has earmarked improvements to two of western Victoria’s most important freight and transport routes, with sections of the Western and Wimmera highways set for repair and rehabilitation works.

Eight sites along the Western Highway – including areas near Horsham, Dimboola and Gerang Gerung – will be subject to a total of more than six kilometres of improvement works.

At the same time, the government has earmarked 6.7 kilometres of the Wimmera Highway for about $4.9-million in repairs and rehabilitation, focused on Rupanyup, Marnoo and St Arnaud districts. The government has also listed other roads across the region to benefit from the $333-million maintenance package, including the Henty, Borung and Glenelg highways.

Victorians will be able to find what works are underway or planned across the state via new website regionalroads.vic.gov.au – or through the new, dedicated, Ballarat call centre, 133 778.

Minister and Labor Member for Western Victoria Jaala Pulford said the road-maintenance blitz would focus on western Victoria’s most important connections.

“These are the roads that connect our communities and that our primary producers rely on,” she said.