Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road

Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (19:11): (6200) It is no surprise that my adjournment tonight again is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek from the minister is to ensure urgent repairs are made on the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road between Healesville and Woori Yallock. It is a very long road, but it is between Healesville and Woori Yallock. I recently drove between these two towns—it is only about a 10-, 12-minute drive—and I counted four ‘Rough surface’ signs and there were lots of dodgy parts of the road. But what I was really surprised about was how much the road resembled being in a small boat at sea, because it was extremely rocky. The camber is all over the place, and I was shocked, really, by that. I should not be, because when I read all of the comments on Facebook, people have said, ‘Well, fancy being in a truck on that. It’s absolutely a lot worse’.

Now, there are many dangers on this road. There have been a number of fatalities, and the fixes are not real fixes. They only ever partially get done. There are lots of twists and turns, blind corners, sharp bends and some hills, and it carries all manner of traffic because, being the major road from Healesville to Koo Wee Rup, a lot of people use it as a bypass heading from the northern part of the state down to Gippsland through Warragul. Resurfacing is needed in spots. The sealing of shoulders is needed, the bitumen is crumbling, bits flick up and hit your windscreen—it can be very dangerous for drivers and for those who need to pull over. The line markings need to be redone. In some spots the lines have completely faded, and they have not been redrawn after they have just had those little quick patch-up jobs. Pothole repairs are needed. Winter will be here and the potholes only grow, so it is time to get those potholes fixed now. Reducing the speed limit and putting up those warning signs does not fix the road. Locals are tired of having their commute prolonged due to the lower speed limits, with no promise that the road is going to be fixed.

Now, I hope that the minister can actually see the significance and urgency of this matter. The road upgrades are an ongoing request of mine, and I am sure it will come again as no surprise that I am calling for this—new year, same issue. People across the region are sick and tired of the bad roads: Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road; Warburton Highway; Melba Highway, on which there was a fatality only a few days ago; Maroondah Highway, Healesville-Kinglake Road—the list goes on. I ask the minister: please address the problems with the roads rather than just sticking up signs and slowing the speed down. People are really fed up and want to see real work.