Riordan wants answers on wire rope barriers

NOT everyone is happy about the rollout of wire rope safety barriers (WRSB) across Victoria, with Liberal Polwarth MP Richard Riordan suggesting there were more important priorities.

The Labor state government has committed $1 billion to improve safety on high risk arterial roads, which includes more than 1,500km of the barriers across the state.

According to a study by the Monash University Accident Research Centre, WRSB can significantly reduce the risk of death and serious injury in crashes.

However, in Parliament earlier this month, Mr Riordan asked Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan for the evidence and methodology behind the location and positioning of the wire rope barriers.

He said he was “being contacted on a daily basis by motorists, trucking companies and other regular road users” who were comparing the cost of the upgrades to Labor’s decision to stop all work on the East West Link.

“Road safety is an important issue for all Victorians.

“Country Victorians in particular can cite poor stretches of road, dangerous intersections and level crossings, that all need to be seen to with limited funds.

“Country communities can often easily identify what they would see as urgent priorities.

“There is a growing frustration in rural Victoria as motorists see hundreds of kilometres of rope wire barrier being installed in inexplicable locations and in quantities that seem to protect no one, and in many unfortunate circumstances make the road more dangerous.

“In one very risky situation on the Princes Highway west of Winchelsea, barriers have been installed less than 30cm from the side line, on a fog-prone road, providing no emergency pull over space, on a road that carries many thousands of cars and trucks per day.”

Mr Donnellan, who inspected the installation of barriers between Melbourne and Geelong in August, said “everyone makes mistakes on the road, but no one should die because of them”.