WANGARATTA won’t be included as part of the State Government’s major road maintenance projects in its regional Victorian blitz announced earlier in the week.
The State Government launched the $964 million road maintenance repairs program on Monday, with 70 per cent ($675 million) of the investment put into crumbling regional roads.
Under a list of the program’s most substantial works obtained by North East Media, no regional roads within the Rural City of Wangaratta local government area were included in the 54-repair works slated for the state.
Included in the project’s most substantial works was the Murray Valley Highway between Jacks Road and Federation Way in Rutherglen, part of the Great Alpine Road near Cobungra and Barooga Road near Cobram.
The nine-month road blitz will also target the state’s busiest travel and trade routes, with works set to be delivered on the Hume Freeway.
The State Government noted many other roads will undergo other maintenance such as patching and resurfacing that are also part of the program.
“Roads are the lifeblood of our community, and this blitz will mean smoother journeys for northern Victorian families and farmers,” Labor Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said.
Works will range from road rehabilitation and maintaining of bridges, traffic lights, signage and road infrastructure.
Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy said if the State Government had committed to what they have said in recent years, local roads wouldn’t be falling apart.
“When will the Labor government stop the spin blitz and actually fix our roads,” he said.
“In 2019 a government media release announced, ‘massive maintenance blitz for Victorian roads’; in 2020 it was mission accomplished with ‘massive road maintenance blitz complete’; in 2021 it was mission accomplished again: ‘major road maintenance blitz wraps up’.
"In 2022 the announcement became ‘road maintenance blitz rolls out across regional Victoria’; in 2023 ‘road maintenance blitz kicks off across regional Victoria’; and in 2024, finally, ‘road maintenance blitz revs up across regional Victoria’.
“We are sick and tired of hearing what Labor promises to do with our roads, if they want us to believe them they should do the job properly.”
One Nation Member for Northern Victoria Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell used the return of State Parliament to call out the Allan Labor Government’s "failure" to properly maintain regional Victorian roads.
In a Notice of Motion moved by Mrs Tyrrell, she said that under the current State Government, Victoria has some of the worst road conditions in Australia.
“Nearly every day a constituent contacts my office complaining about a dangerous road that has been neglected for repair by the State Government,” she said.
“As the member of the biggest electorate geographically, my constituents are driving on unsafe roads all over Northern Victoria region, from the Alpine region to Mildura.”
In welcoming the long-awaited investment, Mrs Tyrrell said the motion called on the pending repair works to be of the highest quality and standard, delivering Victorians world-class road infrastructure.
The motion will be voted on by Members of the Legislative Council in two weeks’ time.