A RESOUNDING PLEA
Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur tabled a petition in Parliament with 4309 signatures, opposing the proposed installation of wire rope barriers on the Princes Highway between Panmure and Allansford.
In 1972 prime farming land along the Princes Highway was compulsorily acquired and unwillingly sold to enable the construction of a dual highway between Allansford and Panmure.
Now, half a century later, the Transport Accident Commission has informed property owners that instead wire rope barriers will be installed on the Princes Highway over two sections: in the median strip of the dual-carriageway and in the centre of a single-carriageway road.
Residents oppose the installation on the basis that:
ongoing repair costs are extremely burdensome to the taxpayer;
they prevent motorists from being able to pull over in cases of emergency;
they make highways difficult for transport operators to drive on;
the barriers down the centre of a single carriageway significantly hinder the mobility of larger vehicles;
and motorcyclists are seriously endangered, to say nothing of the wildlife that gets caught up in them.
The installation of wire rope barriers will have an adverse effect on the safe operation of milk collection services, which in many circumstances occur twice daily. Any major alterations to the transit of produce could pose a serious hazard to tanker drivers and other road users.
Quotes attributable to Bev McArthur MP:
“The resounding plea to the Andrews government from the local community is to build roads, not barriers.”
“The Labor government’s curious insistence on installing wire rope barriers across our state’s highways should be treated with suspicion, particularly when local communities oppose them and foreign countries are removing them over safety concerns.”
“Dairy farmers are already struggling with dilapidated, inadequately funded roads in western Victoria. The government’s addiction to wire rope barriers is just another obstacle to rural lives and family farms.”
“This installation is just another example of bad decisions being made by bureaucrats in ministerial offices a few minutes’ walk from the Yarra and inside these tram tracks without properly consulting rural communities who have to live with them.”
25 February 2020