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Roads | June 27, 2022

Still time to save lives by voting for your worst road

Residents in the Lowan electorate can help shine a light on the region’s worst roads and fight for their repair as part of a statewide safety campaign.

The Liberals and Nationals launched their “Victoria’s worst road” campaign in April, with the intention of developing a priority list of projects to present to the Minister for Roads.

Hundreds of people have already voted in the campaign, but Ms Kealy said more votes were needed to ensure the many roads in need of urgent attention across the Lowan electorate were high on the list.

“Rough, potholed roads are putting lives at risk every day, but these risks could be avoided if the Andrews Labor Government chose to properly invest in maintaining safe roads,” she said.

“Last week in Parliament I spoke about the Coleraine-Edenhope Road, which incorporates a section that locals have termed “The Big Dipper” – a curved hill leading into Coleraine where the camber of the road falls the opposite way to the curve, presenting an incredibly dangerous situation for all drivers.

“The other end of this road is just as bad, where the noise of trucks going over the cracks and faults has been likened to a thunderstorm.

“Residents in the area are putting up with this noise at all hours of the day, but all the government has done are a few measly patch-up jobs, which were never going to cut it.”

Ms Kealy said the Andrews Labor Government had axed $200 million from the road maintenance budget in the past two years alone.

“This has left so many roads littered with rough potholes and crumbling road shoulders that, in some instances, have left the road so narrow it’s impossible to safely overtake another car – let alone a truck,” she said.

“Our road safety campaign hands the power back to the people who are driving our roads every day so we can properly prioritise the roads that are most desperately in need of repair.

“I urge all drivers to vote for the worst roads in our community so I and my colleagues can take this list to the Roads Minister in coming months.”

Ms Kealy encouraged residents to submit their votes at www.VicsWorstRoad.vote