With 100 or more jobs waiting on the green light for the Princes Highway upgrade, Warrnambool businessman Steven Lucas says it is just what the region needs to kickstart the stalled economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
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For more than a year, $60 million in funding for the Illowa upgrade has sat idle and left the community frustrated at why the state government has been so slow to move on this project, Mr Lucas said.
As the Princes Highway West Action Alliance ramps up pressure on the state government, it is also pushing for a formal long-term strategy which sets out a timeline for upgrades to one of Victoria's most important transport assets, as well as a plan to fund the works.
"We can't afford to continue in this ad-hoc manner where we literally have to go begging for funding to have the very worst areas of the highway attended to as urgent priorities," Mr Lucas, the alliance's new spokesman, said.
"I think our community finds it difficult to understand - and is clearly very frustrated - about why the Andrews Government has been so slow to move on this project, given the rock-solid federal funding commitment that is sitting there, unused.
"We understand the Victorian Government is facing a massive challenge in dealing with the impacts of COVID-19.
"But, as Victoria strives to kick-start an economy stalled because of those impacts, we have a key infrastructure project here with the potential to generate more than 100 local jobs, which is exactly what our regional economy needs right now."
As part of the recently finalised Princes Highway Corridor Strategy, which covers Sydney to Adelaide, Mr Lucas said it made sense to develop a long-term plan for the crucial section of the highway that ran through the south-west region.
The south-west region is Victoria's largest milk production area which directly employs almost 7500 people and supplies a third of the Australia's milk and almost a third of Australia's dairy exports.
The alliance has identified three priority upgrade projects including the section of the highway between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, which was the focus of the guaranteed $60 million in federal funding.
Other key upgrade priorities are an overtaking lane in the Stony Rises, and the notorious Blue Church intersection, west of Colac.
Wannon MP Dan Tehan said the Princes Highway in the south-west region needed serious attention, and while the federal government had made a significant commitment to fund upgrades their state counterparts "seem very reluctant to get on board".
"I have said before and I'll say it again, that infrastructure is going to be a key driver in helping to us to drive jobs in the post-COVID environment," Mr Tehan said.
South West Coast MP Roma Britnell has endorsed the alliance's call for a formal future plan for the highway.
"You only have to drive a section of the Princes Highway West to pretty quickly understand how appalling and dangerous it is across a number of areas and has been for years," she said.
She called on member for Western Victoria Jaala Pulford and Roads Minister Ben Carroll to "get this done".
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