A 15-kilometre stretch of Gisborne-Melton Road will get a $3 million upgrade to help curb road injuries and fatalities.
But Melton police highway patrol’s Leading Senior Constable Allan Edwards says that while the state government funding is welcome, it would have been better spent on more dangerous roads.
“Even though we’ve had a couple of fatalities, I don’t think we’ve had one fatality that involved a run-off,’’ he said of incidents on that stretch of road. ‘‘Nothing probably could have prevented them because they were head-on collisions.’’
Western Victoria Liberal MP Simon Ramsay said the upgrade, funded by the Transport Accident Commission’s safer road infrastructure program, would include installation of wire-rope barriers, guard fencing and new light and guide posts. Road shoulders will be sealed and some sections widened in a bid to reduce ‘run-off’ crashes.
“We’ve had successive, record low road tolls in Victoria and we need to keep working hard to ensure we stay a world leader in road safety,” Mr Ramsay said.
Senior Constable Edwards said there were more important roads that needed urgent upgrading.
“Some of the dirt roads like Mount Cottrell – that’s a shocking piece of road and carries very heavy loads of traffic,’’ he said. “There hasn’t been a huge number of collisions on that stretch [Gisborne-Melton Road].”
The stretch of the Gisborne-Melton Road between Hobbs Road, Toolern Vale, and Melton Highway was the scene of 25 crashes in the five years to June this year, including three fatalities and 10 run-off-road crashes.
A spokesman for VicRoads said works were likely to begin midway through next year.
