Australia:Road
repairs and safety under threat: budget cut hits VicRoads
BUDGET
cuts have forced VicRoads to scrap its road safety division and ditch
its long-held strategy for maintaining the state's roads, even though
the strategy was designed to avoid the need for major, expensive
repairs.
6
November, 2012
It has slashed in half its road repaving commitments for the coming year, expecting to resurface just 3.2 per cent of Victoria's roads. A previous strategy to resurface 7 per cent each year was explicitly designed to reduce repair costs.
VicRoads
has also scrapped its Road Safety and Network Access division, as
about 450 staff depart under the state government's public servant
redundancy program.
The
division managed strategies for reducing road trauma and improving
truck freight routes. Remaining road safety staff have been scattered
across the organisation.
David
Shelton, VicRoads' road safety co-ordinator, said road safety work
would not be diminished.
''Improving
road safety and reducing the road toll remains a key priority for
VicRoads,'' Mr Shelton said.
According
to VicRoads' website, the strategy, called ''Stitch in Time'', has
since 1993 ''ensured that regular and timely maintenance has been
carried out to prevent roads deteriorating to the point where they
require major work''.
''This
helps to ensure roads are smoother for all road users, and is also a
cost-saving measure, preventing the need for expensive major
rehabilitation.''
VicRoads
spokesman Travers Purton said the general principles of Stitch in
Time still applied and road resurfacing was happening where it was
needed most.
''This
means that, from year to year, funding for a region may increase or
decrease depending on how works are prioritised across Victoria,'' Mr
Purton said.
Months
of heavy rain have damaged the state's roads and the Baillieu
government partially reversed its cuts to road maintenance last month
when it announced a $45 million ''boost'' for the worst affected
roads. First on the list was the Henty Highway in western Victoria,
where $1.2 million will be spent fixing a badly potholed stretch of
road near Branxholme.
VicRoads
engineers have welcomed the extra funding, but warned it was likely
to be a Band-Aid solution.
''At
a time when engineers are advising the need for greater investment in
roads, we are seeing patching replace repairing, engineers being cut
from VicRoads and budgets being constrained,'' said Bede Payne, the
Victorian director of the Association of Professional Engineers,
Scientists and Managers Australia, which represents VicRoads
engineers. ''This kind of cost-cutting will cost Victorian taxpayers
in the long run.''
Cars
are also being damaged by hitting potholes.
Mornington
Peninsula resident Selina Gilmour recently made an insurance claim
against VicRoads after sustaining minor damage to her car for the
fourth time this year, she says from hitting potholes.
''I
have been doing the run from Balnarring to Balwyn for six years and
I've noticed this year the holes have increased significantly,'' Ms
Gilmour said.
VicRoads
rejected her claim because each incident caused less than $1220
damage, its minimum threshold for compensation. It referred her claim
to the Mornington Peninsula Shire, which also knocked her back. It
said it had inspected that road and found no problems.
''There
is no evidence that the council had received any complaints regarding
a pothole prior to this event,'' it wrote. ''You should be aware that
potholes can form in the road surface extremely quickly and with very
little indication that the roadway is breaking down.''
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