Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, discusses the soon to be upgraded Forge Creek and Paynesville Road intersection with Sergeant Dwayne Morrison, of Bairnsdale Highway Patrol.
Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, today announced that works will start this month on $2.43 million of road safety improvements by the Victorian Coalition Government on the Paynesville Road intersection with Forge Creek Road at Eagle Point.
Mr Bull said that works will soon be underway to build a roundabout at the busy intersection which is used by both local and tourist traffic.
“This intersection had a history of crashes with seven crashes in a recent five year period, in which ten people were seriously hurt and two people suffered minor injuries.
“It is a particularly expensive job as Forge Creek Road also needs to be significantly realigned due to it not currently being a ‘straight through intersection’.
“The community can rest assured we have listened to their concerns and will soon deliver a much safer intersection. The community has been vocal in its support for a roundabout.
“Implementing a roundabout will slow vehicles down and force drivers to pause and look for oncoming traffic, creating a much more controlled environment.
“In its current form this intersection can be a bit confusing for some drivers, where the staggered intersection of Forge Creek Road meets Paynesville Road,” Mr Bull said.
Motorists are reminded to plan ahead as minor traffic delays are expected and temporary reduced speed limits will be in place near the work site for the safety of road workers and drivers.
“We’ve had successive, record low road tolls in Victoria and we need to keep working hard to ensure that we stay a world leader in road safety,” said Mr Bull, who added that works would halt over Christmas so as not to impact on the peak holiday season traffic.
Assistant Treasurer, Gordon Rich-Phillips, said that the Safer Road Infrastructure Program is funded by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), while VicRoads manages the program.
“The Coalition Government has committed a record $1 billion to Safer Road Infrastructure Program over ten years to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads, with more than $199 million committed so far during 2014 on 188 safety improvement projects across Victoria.
“This important and targeted program is helping us build on the road safety gains of recent years, which has led to successive, record low death tolls, while continuing our focus on reducing serious injuries,” Mr Rich-Phillips said.
Construction of the new roundabout will start in early November 2014 and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015.
