Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Fyansford-Gheringhap Road

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:10): (1766) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public Transport and Minister for Roads and Road Safety and concerns the appalling state of the Fyansford-Gheringhap Road and the ongoing impact on road users and residents of the completely counterproductive wire rope barriers inflicted upon them. I have raised the Fyansford-Gheringhap Road numerous times in the chamber, yet the Labor government clearly views the plight of the hardworking residents and farmers of the area as a triviality. The road is in an appalling state, with large potholes, rough surfaces and large ridges in the longitudinal joins in the road often causing cars to inadvertently lose their line and encounter the wire rope barriers. Since the wire rope barriers were imposed on this road and the unwilling locals there have been 16 accidents caused by the rough surface where cars have impacted the barriers.

The roadside drainage is entirely non-functional and has trees growing in the ditches along the entire length of the road. This lack of drainage has resulted in landowners’ paddocks being inundated, even following relatively mediocre precipitation. Despite $8 million being spent on this road recently no remediation work has been done to address this issue. It is obvious even to the engineering uninitiated like me that poor road drainage will only shorten the life of the road that seemingly requires work done on it every year. The longevity—or more accurately the lack thereof—of the roadworks in western Victoria continues to astound me.

To add insult to injury, these wire rope barriers, despite numerous protestations by impacted constituents, still block access gates to farming properties. This has made a massive impact on farmers undertaking their harvest and has added much cost and labour to what is an already fraught undertaking—not that everyone from the inside-the-tram-tracks government would know what is involved in harvesting huge quantities of crop. The action I seek is for the minister to inspect this appalling situation of roadworks in western Victoria, which is costing taxpayers enormous amounts of money and delivering incredibly substandard outcomes. I am sure the residents and landowners of the Fyansford-Gheringhap Road would be happy to show the minister the impact this road and the wire rope barriers are having on their day-to-day lives.