Billion-dollar blitz for safer roads
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Billion-dollar blitz for safer roads

East Gippsland will benefit from safer roads under a Liberal Nationals plan to invest $1 billion over ten years to fix country roads and save country lives.
 
Gippsland East Nationals MP Tim Bull said funding for the $1b Road Fix Blitz will be made up of $400 million for the Country Roads and Bridges program, another $400 million for targeted road restoration and a $200 million boost for general road maintenance.
 
“Reducing the speed limit on roads or rushed patch jobs, as has happened under the city-centric Andrews Labor Government, just doesn’t cut it. We need real investment and to plan for better roads for East Gippsland,” Mr Bull said.
 
“At the moment we are seeing a lot of activity on roads with barriers being installed, while road surfaces remain sub-standard in many locations,” he said.
 
As well as boosting funding to fix country roads, an elected Liberal Nationals Government will improve response times for urgent repair works, commissioning a new smartphone app for real-time reporting of road hazards.
 
In 2017 there were 156 road fatalities on rural and regional roads, which made up 60.2 per cent of all Victorian road deaths that year. In the year to date, there have been 84 road fatalities in regional Victoria, which is just over 50 per cent of fatalities across the state.
 
Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Regional Victoria and Decentralisation Peter Walsh said there would be no more patch-up jobs, but proper fixes to get back in control of regional road maintenance.
 
“Before the last election Daniel Andrews claimed the East West Link contract wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and that lie cost taxpayers $1.3 billion.
 
“It’s unforgiveable that Daniel Andrews wasted $1.3 billion that could have been spent on improving the safety of regional roads.”
 
The Road Fix Blitz program will be in addition to existing road maintenance and restoration initiatives delivered by VicRoads.
 
Caption: Gippsland East Nationals MP Tim Bull has announced an elected Liberal Nationals Government will undertake a $1 billion Road Fix Blitz to take back control of country road maintenance.
 
Tuesday, October 30, 2018