Thursday, 22 February 2024

Adjournment

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (18:15): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Wire rope barriers

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:15): (732) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and it concerns the government’s failure to repair damaged wire rope safety barriers along critical sections of rural highways and freeways. The action that I seek is for the minister to instruct the Department of Transport and Planning to repair damaged wire rope safety barriers on the Hume Freeway, Midland Highway and Goulburn Valley Highway immediately.

Prior to the installation of wire rope safety barriers the government claimed they were necessary to improve road safety and reduce deaths on rural and regional roads. These barriers were installed, at great expense, on the sides of many major roads to prevent cars from running off the road, and on some highways, like the Midland Highway, they have been installed in the centre of the road to prevent vehicles crossing into oncoming traffic. These barriers will only remain effective if they are maintained, but the Labor government has fallen behind and barriers that have been damaged are not being maintained. On the Midland Highway between Mooroopna and Byrneside large sections of the wire rope in the centre of the road have been lying on the ground since well before Christmas. Some sections of the wire rope are acting as trellises for gum trees that have taken hold and are now taller than the safety barriers, which cannot be good for the integrity of the barriers or the road surface. Constituents have also reported significant damage to barriers on the Midland Highway between Shepparton and Benalla and the Goulburn Valley Highway. One constituent reported to me that they counted over 50 sections of damage to wire rope safety barriers on the Hume Freeway between Benalla and Seymour.

The VicRoads Road Management Plan, published in 2021, stipulates a required response time for different types of hazards on different categories of road. Major roads, like the Hume Freeway, Midland Highway and Goulburn Valley Highway, are generally category 2 or 3. The Road Management Plan says that for category 2 or 3 the required time to respond to missing or damaged safety barriers is just 30 days – 30 days from the time of being notified or doing an inspection the maintenance crew must respond to the hazard and rectify it or set up a warning for that hazard. But residents in my constituency who travel on these roads every day have reported that there are sections of the road where the wire rope safety barrier has been down for months and nothing has been done. This is unacceptable. The government spent a very large amount of money putting up these barriers, and that will all be wasted if it does not repair the wire ropes when they detach or break or go down. I urge the minister to instruct the Department of Transport and Planning to urgently survey wire rope safety barriers and implement a program of repair as soon as possible.