By JESSE GRAHAM
A HIGH-RISK section of road near the Black Spur will have a safety upgrade next year to reduce fatalities and serious injuries following a funding announcement last week.
On Thursday 29 August, Member for Seymour Cindy McLeish announced that $1.64 million would be spent to make the Maroondah Highway safer between Old Fernshaw Road and the water-tanks 600 metres east of Dowd Road.
She said the section of road had a significant history of crashes, with 21 casualty crashes, 18 of which resulting in serious injury, in the five years up to June 2012.
More than one kilometre of guard fencing will be installed along the road, with over 500 metres of wire-rope safety barriers, three kilometres of shoulder-sealing, new line-marking and warning signs to alert motorists.
Leading Senior Constable with Healesville Police Chris Hickey said the section of road had an “exceptionally terrible” rate of crashes, due to dangerous bends and a slick surface when wet.
“Every time it rains, we can almost guarantee there’ll be an accident,” he said.
“We don’t get a lot of injury accidents, but we do get a lot of accidents – cars can go off the edge there.
“Safety barriers around that corner would be excellent, and Victoria Police wholly supports any improvement to road conditions or safety.”
Ms McLeish said the program was funded by the Victorian Government’s Safer Road Infrastructure Program (SRIP) and that care would be taken to make sure all road users would benefit.
“We know this is a popular area for motorcyclists and VicRoads will be ensuring the safety barrier treatments are motorcycle friendly,” she said.
“This will be achieved by ensuring the guard fence is fitted with rub-rail and the wire-rope barrier posts are cushioned.”
She said that the project was aimed at reducing casualties and serious injuries as part of Victoria’s Road Safety Strategy 2013-2022.
“We’ve had successive, record low tolls in Victoria and we need to keep working hard to ensure that we stay a world leader in road safety,” Ms McLeish said.
Works on the project are expected to begin in January 2014 and run until mid year.
