Times
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TUESDAY, JUN JUNE 23, 2020
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Botched barrier job A DAMNING audit on VicRoads’ road safety barrier installations has found the roll out of flexible barriers won’t reduce serious casualty crashes as claimed, and has left roads dangerously narrow in places. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office
assessed the installation of flexible barriers on the Princes Highway through Gippsland and other high-risk rural roads across the state under the $340 million ‘Top 20’ program, and examined the roles of VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission. The report found the project was badly managed, with cost blowouts and poor
record keeping, and VicRoads may have overstated the efficacy of barriers and inflated cost benefit ratios. While the report acknowledged that flexible safety barriers could save lives on Victoria’s roads, the evaluation found the VicRoads’ program was “not on target” to achieve the expected reductions in run-off-road and head-on
Toy library reopens PARENTS and children across the district will rejoice today as Wellington Toy Library reopens. The toy library has a collection of more than 1000 toys catering for children aged from six months to eight years. Borrowers can take home up to three toys for a fortnight at a time. The toy library, at 55 Raymond St, Sale, opens Tuesdays from10am to noon and Fridays from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. It will be following all protocols surrounding COVID-19 released by Toy Libraries Australia, including thorough cleaning of toys. Photo: Youngsters Mia and Indy Van Dosselaar, Erin Healy and Abigail Williams get a sneak peek at some of the new toys available for loan. Photo: Liam Durkin
serious casualty crashes stated in its investment plans and project proposals. The state government’s Towards Zero strategy states flexible barriers can reduce fatalities and serious injuries from head-on and run-off-road crashes by up to 85 per cent, but analysis of 18 projects found the barriers, along with rumble strips and wide centre lines, had only reduced fatalities and serious injuries on these sections of road by 46.5 per cent. Gippsland East MLA Tim Bull said the audit revealed what drivers already knew about the barrier project — “it’s a disaster”. Mr Bull said of major concern was VicRoads’ exemptions to its own standards for wide offsets for the Princes Highway east of Stratford, making that road particularly dangerous. “So it’s here in black and white that VicRoads has sought exemptions to its own preferred standards due to cost limitations,” he said. According to the report, VicRoads did not prepare a business case for the project, and had no consolidated document showing how TAC and VicRoads analysed different options or justified why the barriers were the best valuefor-money option. It also found VicRoads’ inadequate record keeping hinders its ability to evaluate the program, as it cannot determine which serious casualty crashes involved flexible barriers or identify when a flexible barrier has not worked correctly. In addition, its maintenance priorities are not informed by the condition of flexible barriers, so the authority does not know which barriers require maintenance at specific points in time. Gippsland South MLA Danny O’Brien said while he believed safety barriers could help save lives, the “community knows the program has been messed
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up”. The report found the wire rope barrier program was $100 million, or 22 per cent, over budget, and for some program projects, the Auditor-General saw no evidence that TAC and VicRoads had sufficient information about key project details before they approved funding. Mr O’Brien said it was clear the project had been “botched” on the Princes Highway east of Sale and he was now concerned about works on the South Gippsland Highway between Leongatha and Meeniyan. “I have had complaints about the road surface as a result of safety treatments installed in the last year or so, and I have raised those with the Minister for Roads,” he said. Mr O’Brien said he had called for the barriers to be reviewed. “The Minister has rejected this out of hand but the Auditor-General confirms our fears,” he said. Mr O’Brien said the Auditor-General found there was no stakeholder engagement plan for the program, which he said had led to backflips, including VicRoads having to remove newly installed barriers on the Princes Highway east of Stratford. “Finally, it says the government is not adequately managing maintenance and repairs, increasing the risk safety barriers won’t work.” Shadow Minister for Rural Roads Roma Britnell said the “flawed” project has cost taxpayers dearly, without even delivering the expected road safety outcomes. “The community has been deeply concerned about the roll out of wire rope barriers for years,” she said. “The Liberal Nationals have long been raising these concerns, but the Andrews Labor government brushed them aside and called those objecting ‘banjo-playing dingbats’. Continued page 5
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