EUREKA MP and new Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development Michaela Settle has hailed a state budget allocation of more than $1 billion for road improvements as a record spend.<\/p>\n
“Today we’re announcing the biggest road blitz in the state’s history, and most of that is going to regional Victoria,” she said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Our road crews are already out working from last year’s then, already [a] record investment and that work will continue.”<\/p>\n
Settle made the comments at Leigh Creek on the Western Freeway, just east of Ballarat.<\/p>\n
The government announced that it would allocate $1.04b in the 2026-2027 budget to rebuild, repair and resurface roads throughout the state \u2013 enough to get rid of 200,000 potholes, 200,000 graffiti tags, and more.<\/p>\n
“Seventy per cent of this money is going into regional Victoria, and that’s because we know the road network in regional Victoria is essential,” Settle said.<\/p>\n
“Not only does it get us to work, home and school, but of course it carries our wonderful agricultural produce across the state.”<\/p>\n
Settle said $36.9m of the overall allocation would go towards “cleaning up” 10 of the state’s busiest freeways through graffiti and rubbish removal, mowing and other works.<\/p>\n
The Western Freeway is on the list of roads to be tackled, along with others including the Monash, West Gate, Calder and Hume freeways and the Western Ring Road.<\/p>\n
Work will include rebuilding, repairing and resurfacing arterial roads; maintaining bridges and traffic lights; emergency roadworks; repairing or replacing signs; and mowing, slashing and spraying grass and weeds along roadsides.<\/p>\n
According to the government, road crews have already repaired 187,000 potholes and cleaned up 127,000 square metres of graffiti.<\/p>\n
They have also mowed 1.9m metres of roadsides and repaired or replaced 31,000 signs, and inspected 13,600 barriers.<\/p>\n
Settle said the government would consider data-driven inspections and community feedback when pinpointing areas where work needed to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EUREKA MP and new Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development Michaela Settle has hailed a state budget allocation of more than $1 billion for road improvements as a record spend. “Today we’re announcing the biggest road blitz in the state’s history, and most of that is going to regional Victoria,” she said on Monday. “Our […]<\/p>\n