Give us more
SOUTH Gippsland needs up to triple the $4.33 million in funding announced by Deputy Premier Peter Ryan last week, a roads campaigner has stated.
No quick fix: Lisa Burge, with daughter Isla and mum Heather Poletti want to see dangerous roads around South Gippsland fixed properly.
The state funding would repair some roads that have suffered from almost three years of solid rainfall.
Mother and daughter team, Heather Poletti and Lisa Burge, have been campaigning for many years for repairs on the Meeniyan-Promontory Road.
Ms Burge has been trying to get this popular tourist route some serious attention since 2011 and has welcomed the latest funding announcement.
“There are always going to be ongoing issues, but winter in South Gippsland is not a good time to be complacent about safety on our roads,” Ms Burge said.
“The $4.33 million is a start, but we will need double, maybe triple that to get the roads back to where they need to be.”
Ms Poletti said not only potholes needed attention, but there was also dangerous subsidence and road side maintenance that need to be addressed.
“On a road rating scale of one to five, with five being excellent, our roads are no higher than a one,” she said.
“The funding is good, but we need a lot more and the work that gets done needs to be of high quality.
“It needs to be signed off by somebody who is responsible for the work, otherwise it will just be a waste of money.”
Mr Ryan said South Gippsland would be one of the first regions to benefit from the Victorian Government’s $170 million package to improve Victorian roads.
“VicRoads will now develop a program of works, which will involve extensive, long-term surface repairs, to improve damaged roads in South Gippsland,” he said.
Mr Ryan said sections of Fish Creek-Foster Road, Foster-Promontory Road, Waratah Road, Barry Road, Meeniyan Promontory Road and Buffalo-Tarwin Lower Road would benefit.
“These roads are extremely popular with tourists, but are also regularly used by many locals on their daily commute. This funding will enable contractors to repair and restore these important local roads,” he said.
“The first contract to carry out these works will be advertised in coming weeks, with repairs set to start later this year in the warmer conditions required to construct road surfacing works.”
Ms Poletti said while she understands the work can’t proceed at this time of year, she hopes it is completed before the peak tourism season begins.
“VicRoads will need to establish a timeframe and alert the public of the expected start and end date,” she said.
Ms Burge believed VicRoads needed to take action to let all road users know when the roadwork will occur.
“And they will need to think about the amount of traffic, and what type of traffic uses the road and cater for it,” she said.
“If they think they are going to complete the work over summer, they will need to think about the traffic that will be using the road at that time.”
The following sections of roads would benefit from the funding boost:
• Fish Creek-Foster Road: $1.27million for 2.6km of repairs near Grady’s Ridge Road at Foster;
• Foster-Promontory Road: $670,000 for 1.2km of repairs from Foster to Fish Creek;
• Waratah Road: $540,000 for 1km of repairs at Fish Creek;
• Barry Road: $280,000 for 520m of repairs at Agnes;
• Meeniyan-Promontory Road: $870,000 for 1.8km of repairs at Buffalo; and
• Buffalo-Tarwin Lower Road: $700,000 for 1.36km of repairs at Middle Tarwin.
A spokesperson from VicRoads said these roads will be fixed using more extensive, longer term, road surface repairs.
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Posted by Jacob De Kunder on Aug 27 2013. 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
