A WIN FOR SOUTHEND INTERSECTION

The Southern Ports Highway/Southend Access Road intersection will soon receive the necessary civil works to install a left-hand turning lane as the State Labor Government concedes Departmental costings were over cooked.

Years of continuous lobbying by the Southend community and the Wattle Range Council had been consistently met with contemptuous deflection from the State’s Infrastructure Minister who insisted that, “…the junction is operating safely and is in satisfactory condition in its current layout,” and that it would cost over five times above what the Wattle Range Council anticipated.

Instead of working productively with myself and the Wattle Range Council to fund a solution to the intersection that sits on a State Government controlled highway, Minister Koutsantonis has preferred to argue that installing a left-hand turn lane would cost more than $2 million dollars and would not address safety concerns at the intersection.

Despite visiting the Limestone Coast during Country Cabinet in October last year, Minister Koutsantonis refused to accept my invitation to see the intersection first-hand and meet with the community regarding their concerns.

The plight of Southend intersection has been an example of rural and regional roads being neglected because Government spending priorities lay elsewhere despite two third of all road fatalities occurring on rural and regional roads.

The State Government will provide the Wattle Range Council with the funding to complete the $400,000 project.

The fact that the Minister has finally conceded and accepted the Council’s costings is a win for common sense.

It’s extremely disappointing that it has taken so long to achieve this outcome. What we need is a State Government that respects locals and their representatives. Had they done that these works could have been completed years ago.

I congratulate the local community and Wattle Range Council for their persistence. The end result will ultimately improve road safety for all road users and that’s a win worth celebrating.