General News
30 January, 2023
Crumbling roads a risk: Walsh
GOVERNMENT neglect of country roads was increasingly putting drivers and passengers at risk, said Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh. Mr Walsh said: “The numbers are very plain here – there’s more than 70,000km of roads across regional Victoria that...
GOVERNMENT neglect of country roads was increasingly putting drivers and passengers at risk, said Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh.
Mr Walsh said: “The numbers are very plain here – there’s more than 70,000km of roads across regional Victoria that need to be maintained and there’s nowhere near enough money being made available to get the job done
“Apart from a few half-baked repairs, the best solution this bankrupt government can come up with to try and cut costs is to lower the speed limit anywhere and everywhere there is a potential traffic hazard – and there are plenty of those.”
Mr Walsh’s campaign for better country road funding has highlighted conditions on the Prairie-Rochester Road.
““I drove the Prairie-Rochester Road the other day – and I have driven down a lot of fairly ordinary country roads over the years – and on this occasion you could be taking your life in your own hands. It is in appalling shape and there are some stretches that are genuinely scary and some with absolutely no warning,” he said.
“When you think about the billions and billions of taxpayer dollars being blown on cost overruns and failed deadlines for the much-hyped Andrews Government ‘big build’ anyone could be forgiven if they thought this Government does not give a damn about their safety and wellbeing (on country roads.”
Mr Walsh says: “You can chart the impotence of the ‘quick fix’ of the majority of running repairs on some roads, with bitumen waves on the sides of roads everywhere, as increasingly heavy traffic, particularly B-doubles and heavy farm machinery, quickly destroys shoddy repair work.”