THE final week of our five-week series is officially here, highlighting a persistent issue that seems to get worse with weather and time.
This week’s edition of ‘Five issues. One election’ will be discussing the importance of improving our roads, and having a proactive approach to fix them, instead of waiting for them to crumble.
#1 Road quality and potholes
Ah yes, a topic that sparks fire every time it’s discussed, but for good reason.
The saying “roads need to be roadworthy, not cars these days” has blown up, particularly over the last couple of months since the colder months have set in.
Government and council have struggled to keep up with the pace of potholes, and scrutiny has been felt in Kilmore where the strip in front of the local MP’s office was fixed, yet worse spots in town remain the same.
Backlash sparked online about the 20-metre-long strip of asphalt that was put down in front of the MP’s office on Sydney Street roughly a month ago.
Comments from a recent Facebook post about the roads read: “Our member in Kilmore has had the road surface fixed on both sides in front of the office. Nice work, while the rest of the road falls apart.”
The Liberals have devoted $5 billion to road repairs across the state if they’re elected in November, promising a major difference.
State Member for Northern Victoria Annabelle Cleeland knows that regional Victorians have had enough.
“Across our electorate, families, farmers, freight operators and local businesses are forced to navigate roads that are crumbling beneath them every single day,” she said.
“Whether it’s the Hume Freeway, the Goulburn Valley Highway or countless local state roads, people are sick of dodging potholes, replacing tyres and repairing suspension.”
But is that more talk and election promise, or will it be action if they’re elected?
Markings have been left near the pothole (pictured) on the Kilmore-Lancefield Road which has been sitting there for months, forcing every car to swerve on the other side of the road.
It will be interesting to see whether they only patch the five-metre pothole, or the strip of craters roughly 50 metres further as well.
It is evident to see the quality of the asphalt that falls apart through nearly every rainfall we have.
Although that is unfixable at this stage, repairs need to be stronger and of higher quality instead of the cheapest option available, which continues to crumble.
The Hume Freeway was a major discussion at the Beveridge community update a couple of weeks ago, with members of the community calling for more lanes and better quality around the Beveridge area.
Beveridge currently runs in and out of one lane, while also dealing with an appalling excuse of entry from the Hume Freeway in every direction.
Members called for the Hume, exits and lanes to be upgraded before the infrastructure because “although it would be awesome to have new infrastructure, it would be good if we could get to them within a reasonable timeframe,” they said.
As their population grows by 100,000 people across the next 20 years, without better roads, wait times in the car will grow massively.
The Kilmore Bypass is looking to be a hot topic once again for council to push for politicians to fund, but I’m concerned it will be more of the same as the last two decades.
Council claim that the currently constructed roundabout on the Northern highway, south of Kilmore is part of the construction for the Bypass, but without bulk land acquisition, I struggle to see how much of that is true.
The roundabout will allow people from Wandong, Kilmore and Wallan to flow smoother and remove a very dangerous intersection, but according to plans, there won’t be an added entry and exit for the bypass, pushing that ‘stage’ further back.
So, Council believe the construction includes the Bypass, when really it has little to no evidence of inclusion of the Bypass.
Recent backlash has sparked about O’Grady’s Road, which saw an accident due to the immense drop-off from the solid bitumen on the edge of the road.
The drop-off has caused multiple car flips, both leading to serious injuries that could simply be avoided through better and safer road edge quality.
All eyes on the future of the Mitchell Shire will be looking at major improvement of the roads and transport in the area, and the election is a great place for parties to commit to fixing them.
Finishing off ‘Five Issues. One Election’ we hope we’ve nailed the top priorities for the election at the Review and are excited to see what lies ahead of November.