Drivers plea for safety overhaul of South Gippsland roads

SOUTH Gippslanders have backed The Star’s bid for safety improvements on the Bass Highway and other roads in the region.

The Star last week launched a fresh bid for substantial roadworks to make the highway safer between Leongatha and Anderson.

Drivers are forced to risk colliding with oncoming traffic by travelling in the middle of the highway when it floods, as ruts and clogged drains cause water to pool on the edges of lanes.

The highway also has many rough patches and inadequate shoulders, yet is a major thoroughfare.

Inverloch’s Kevin Gannon said the highway near the Powlett River bridge at Dalyston warranted attention.

“You are bouncing all over the road. The section coming into Wonthaggi from Dalyston is a shocking bit of road and also from Inverloch to Leongatha is just as bad,” he said.

Another highway resident at Inverloch, who only wanted to be known as Michelle, called for wider verges, resurfacing works and for safer turning at Pound Creek Road, after numerous crashes there.

“They did a patch but it’s still pretty bouncy and the water just stays on it,” she said.

“There is so much more traffic here now. We’ve been here for six years and we have got about double the traffic that we used to have in that time.”

The Star asked readers for comments about roads of concern on Facebook and these were among their views:

• Bruce Wood: “Sometimes it feels more like a river than a road between Leongatha and Inverloch.”
• Scott Shellcot: “If that’s a good road I will eat my hat, two trucks passing, you are so close to one another, grass right to edge of bitumen, no verge and metre deep drains, and it’s called a highway, seriously.”
• Paul Denbrok: “That road is absolutely crap. As a tanker driver I do 80ks until I get to the fire station at Leongatha South and there’s a big hole just past Whitelaws Track. Shocking it is.”
• Dianne Wood: “The water pooling between Leongatha and Inverloch is horrendous and extremely dangerous. The road surface is a disgrace. There should be an overtaking lane somewhere between Inverloch and Wonthaggi for sure.”
• Trudy McMahon Banks: “It seems that lately, instead of fixing country roads they are reducing speed limits! Our State Government needs to commit to fixing country roads, not just slowing us down.”
• Allison Drury: “This road has been like this for over 10 years with little ever done to address it. About time something was done, it’s downright scary. Especially between Pound Creek and Inverloch where you get the worst road rivers.”
• Rach Casey: “Something should of been done years ago with that road. Every single part of South Gippy Hwy needs TLC, not just ya stupid patch work on odd potholes.”
• Travis Dixon: “The only thing that’s a joke about the road is that it’s classified as a state highway. Driving a truck the length of it day in and day out is absolutely dangerous.
• “No shoulders, deep drains, misaligned side roads, uneven camber that sends you shooting to the left and narrow lanes. It’s an absolute wonder more people haven’t been killed.”
• Sandra Fleming: “The water pools on the road and very uneven rough surface in lots of places and a dangerous pothole near Leongatha South. A really busy highway at all times now.”

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Oct 15 2019. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry