Hepburn Shire councillors have voted to allocate $940,000 of funding for road safety works between Stanbridge Street and Central Springs Road.
A tender for works was publicly advertised in August, and has been awarded to Ballarat Excavations and Transport. The works are set to include new footpath connections, wombat crossings, upgraded piped stormwater and the construction of new kerbs.
Transport Accident Commission (TAC) data shows that local councils manage 87 percent of Victorian roads.
What people said: Councillor Pat Hockey said that crossings on busy roads are “brought up all the time”.
Councillor Lesley Hewitt said safety concerns on the road had been raised “continually” to her by residents throughout the years. She also flagged concern that council are “dependent on state and federal government funding to do things”.
Where’s the money? The funding comes through the Safe Local Roads program, a $214 million initiative from the state government in partnership with the Department of Transport and Planning and TAC.
At a state level: On Thursday, Vic Labor announced a re-elected Carroll government would fund 25 local roads with $893 million. This includes a duplication of Ballarat-Carngham road to four lanes with upgraded traffic lights, cycling paths and a new roundabout.
At a federal level: Catherine King, the Federal MP for Ballarat and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, said roads need to be safe.
“We drive them on to get to work,” King said. “We take our kids to school on them.”
She cited several grants and initiatives, like the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, as key work happening in this space at a federal level.
“And we’re seeing those right across the country, delivering great safety benefits for communities,” she said. “And of course there is always more to do, and we need to make sure the volume of the road is taken into account before we put money into it.”