Goldfields highway named worst
The State Opposition has condemned delays to upgrades on the Great Eastern Highway after the arterial road was named one of the worst in WA.
Shadow transport spokesman Ken Travers said it was a disgrace the Government had postponed the redevelopment of the highway, named the State’s fifth-worst road in the RAC Risky Road Survey.
The Barnett Government made a commitment to spend $48 million over four years to install 15 passing lanes between Coolgardie and Southern Cross before the 2013 State election.
In January, however, it announced the work would not be completed until the 2019-20 financial year.
During a visit to Kalgoorlie-Boulder earlier this month, Transport Minister Dean Nalder was keen to highlight the fact other works being carried out on the highway were ahead of schedule.
Mr Nalder said upgrades to the road between Coolgardie and Bullabulling, now expected to be completed a few months earlier than predicted, would “dramatically improve safety” for road users.
But Mr Travers said the Government was choosing to focus on just one aspect of the highway’s redevelopment.
“The Government only wants to talk about the good news, not the broken promises and the bad news,” he said.
“They’ve always been very cagey about that because they’re trying to hide the fact they’ve broken their election commitment, but it’s clearly been delayed.
“If you go back to the press release, the Premier at the time identified that as a dangerous road.
“To now delay it is just simply unacceptable and they will have to accept responsibility if anyone else is injured on that stretch of road.”
Mr Nalder said claims he was spruiking the works that were ahead of schedule, given the addition of passing lanes had been delayed, were misleading.
“It needs to be understood that there is also a separate improvement project currently under way on Great Eastern Highway which is jointly funded by the State and Commonwealth,” he said.
“The project to provide 15 additional passing lanes on GEH between Southern Cross and Coolgardie at a cost of $48m was deferred by 12 months … due to the overall financial situation facing the State.
“As with all infrastructure delivery projects, funding profiles and construction timings are reviewed annually and if there is an opportunity to bring forward these works, they will be brought forward.”
