Danny O’Brien – Speed reductions soar amid rough roads
Sunday 17 March 2024
More than 540 stretches of road across Victoria are subject to speed limit reductions and driver warnings due to the poor state of the road surface according to new data.
Information provided by the Department of Transport to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee shows there are 480 sites in regional Victoria subject to “Pavement in poor condition” management plans and a further 61 in metropolitan Melbourne.
These sites total more than 830 kilometres of road that are subject to condition-based speed limit reductions, “rough surface” warning signs or “additional inspection” arrangements.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said the number of “pavement in poor condition” management plans and speed reductions is a symptom of Labor’s budget cuts and neglect of our roads.
“Labor can’t manage money, can’t manage our roads and Victorians are paying the price,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Successive cuts to the roads maintenance budget totalling 45 per cent since 2020 have led to serious deterioration of the Victorian road network.
“We now see that manifested not only in unsafe roads, but in speed reductions on roads that inconvenience and frustrate Victorians in the city and country.
“If the Labor Government spent as much money on fixing the roads as it does on putting up new speed signs, we might get somewhere.
“Labor has wasted over $38 billion in cost blow-outs on major projects and $600 million in cancelling the Commonwealth Games but can’t find the money to do basic pavement repairs on our road network.”