IT’S been a long road to get the Princes Highway upgraded between Winchelsea and Geelong and it’s only going to get longer for those west of Colac.
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For more than a decade, calls to fund major improvements of the Princes Highway west have largely fallen on deaf ears. The national highway as it is known has had a few passing lanes added with political leaders from both sides and tiers of government wanting us to believe they are better than nothing.
But Corangamite Shire mayor Chris O’Connor is calling on the new Labor state government to commit to an upgrade of the highway in the south-west, saying the poor road network is costing industry millions of dollars each year.
He is urging the government to make the Princes Highway number one. He revealed yesterday that apart from duplicating the stretch between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, there was unlikely to be any further duplication works in the next 25 years.
Cr O’Connor, who is the head of the Great South Coast group of councils, is proposing a 2+1 model, which involves two lanes moving in one direction and one lane in the other, separated by a flexible wire barrier, could be a more cost-effective, quicker and simpler solution than duplication.
According to VicRoads, the cost of a 2+1 model would be three to four times cheaper per kilometre than duplication. The problem is, the 2+1 model, used widely in Sweden where fatalities have fallen by up to 90 per cent, is untried in Australia.
Cr O’Connor wants the state government to commit funding to complete a business case on introducing the 2+1 model on the Princes Highway west.
It’s a suggestion that deserves support.
Governments at both state and federal levels are coming under increasing pressure to return to surplus budgets and rein in spending. Here’s a good idea that could save the state and the nation significant funds in construction and maintenance as well as reduce the time and costs involved in freighting commodities along our pothole-riddled, single-lane highway.
Investigating the idea is a no-brainer. So too is improving safety.