Fix our roads plea
BOTH state and local governments are coming under fire from South Gippsland residents, sick and tired of poorly maintained roads.
Moyarra’s Trevor Browning has been writing to Minister for Roads Luke Donnellan, asking him to do something about the state of South Gippsland’s roads.
He said it was disappointing to read in The Star recently the Labor Government slashed the regional roads budget and the current allocation will not even be enough to fill potholes, let alone support any meaningful maintenance work.
“The poor state of roads is costing motorists’ money and we also pay a premium for fuel in the country. Something has to be done to fix the roads,” he said.
Mr Browning said his tyres are worn out after only 40,000 kilometres and was told the abnormal wear was due to bad roads. “I normally get at least 60,000 kilometres out of my tyres,” he said.
Mr Browning said the whole problem of deteriorating roads and the government’s unwillingness to provide a sufficient budget to make roads safe must be addressed urgently.
“The South Gippsland Highway between Leongatha and the Bass Highway interchange just continues to deteriorate and nothing gets fixed,” he said.
“There is a section of the highway at Nyora where the road has been at 80km/hour since well before Christmas and nothing has been done.
“There was some work on the road called Scout Road but this appears to have been abandoned.”
Mr Browning said he uses those roads everyday and goes to Melbourne twice a week, which is why he is so passionate about getting the roads fixed and making South Gippsland a safer place for all road users.
Family day care operator Trish Wight lives on Timmins Estate Road (off Carmodys Road), Leongatha, and said the road conditions lately have been shocking.
“They come and thrown some rock in the holes, which they only do that because the bus drivers complain, but as soon as trucks go over it, it all comes out,” she said.
Ms Wight said one of the major problems with the road was corrugations.
“It is just ridiculous. I can’t take the kids for a walk in the pram because the road is too rough and there are cars swerving to avoid potholes. It’s just too dangerous,” she said.
Ms Wight said she complained to South Gippsland Shire Council about the condition of the road last year and even had parents sign a petition to say how bad the roads are.
“I understand the council has a lot of roads to maintain but a lot of heavy vehicles use the road and the council only attends to it occasionally,” she said.
“At time I have thought about going down with a wheelbarrow and filling the holes myself, but I shouldn’t have to do that.”
Council’s director of engineering services Anthony Seabrook said the potholes on Carmodys Road were repaired recently.
“The last routine inspection for Carmodys Road was two weeks ago, with any identified works undertaken last week,” he said.
Poor surface: Trish Wight and some of the children in her family day care group, from left, Annabel, Cooper, Jackson and Chloe, do not walk along Carmodys Road at Leongatha frequently, due to terrible corrugations and potholes.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Mar 3 2015. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
