Media Releases

Northern Victoria has received a major boost for flood recovery with a $2.64 million contract awarded to reconstruct a number of VicRoads controlled roads affected by the January floods, Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh, announced today.
Mr Walsh said that the contractor, RE Civil Pty Ltd, have begun works to rebuild sections of the Murray Valley Highway and the Kerang-Koondrook, Kerang-Murrabit, Bendigo-Pyramid and Boort-Charlton Roads.
“Many of these roads were badly damaged during the January floods and it is vital that we begin the process of rebuilding them.
“The works include repairs to a 1.7km section of the Murray Valley Highway between the Loddon Valley Highway and Sleepy Lane in Kerang, which has remained closed with signed detours since January 2011,” Mr Walsh said
A section of the Murray Valley Highway near the weigh station to the north of Kerang has also been included in the works. This will provide a smoother road surface which will improve safety and ride quality for motorists.
“So far, $78.9 million has been spent on repairing flood damaged VicRoads controlled roads state-wide. VicRoads and its contractors are working hard to restore access and reduce the impact the floods have had on Victorians,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Victorian Coalition Government is committed to reopening these roads so that local communities and industry can return to normal.”
Work began on 28 November and will be completed by the end of March 2012, weather permitting.
Over the construction period, message boards will be on site to advise motorists of the latest information. The work sites will also be under traffic management control to minimise traffic disruptions.

Local Member, Peter Walsh, and Minister for Roads, Terry Mulder, today announced the Buloke Shire had received a $1 million grant from the Victorian Coalition Government’s Country Roads and Bridges fund.
“This investment is extremely important in helping restore essential local government road infrastructure,” Mr Walsh said.
“Our rural and regional Councils have struggled for many years to meet the maintenance needs of our road network and this funding boost meets another election commitment by the Coalition Government.”
“This funding is essential in helping keep our roads in good repair and safe for all users,” he said.
“We are proud to be providing this boost in funding to the Shire of Buloke to help aid in their maintenance programs,” Mr Mulder said.
“This program provides up to $1 million each to 40 rural councils annually for the next four years. This is a total of $160 million of additional funds to improve the condition of roads and bridges in rural Victoria.”
The $1 million has been allocated to Buloke Shire to provide extra funds for maintenance and restoration of existing road or bridge infrastructure in the region.
Mayor of the Buloke Shire, Cr David Pollard, said that this additional funding will enable Council to bring forward important road works that have been identified in their long term capital works program.
“These funds will be used by the Buloke Shire to undertake restoration works on Watchupga- Culgoa Road, Massey- Bangerang Road and Wilkur- Watchupga Road,” Cr Pollard said.
Mr Mulder said the 2011-12 Victorian Budget included nearly $601 million for road projects that would deliver significant improvements for motorists, particularly in outer suburban and regional areas.

Local Member, Peter Walsh, and Minister for Roads, Terry Mulder, today announced the Gannawarra Shire had received a $1 million grant from the Victorian Coalition Government’s Country Roads and Bridges fund.
“This investment is extremely important in helping restore essential local government road infrastructure,” Mr Walsh said.
“Our rural and regional Councils have struggled for many years to meet the maintenance needs of our road network and this funding boost meets another election commitment by the Coalition Government.”
“This funding is essential in helping keep our roads in good repair and safe for all users,” he said.
“We are proud to be providing this boost in funding to the Gannawarra Shire to help aid in their maintenance programs,” Mr Mulder said.
“This program provides up to $1 million each to 40 rural councils annually for the next four years. This is a total of $160 million of additional funds to improve the condition of roads and bridges in rural Victoria.”
The $1 million has been allocated to the Shire of Gannawarra to provide extra funds for maintenance and restoration of existing road or bridge infrastructure in the region.
Mayor of the Gannawarra Shire, Cr Max Fehring, said that this additional funding will enable Council to bring forward important road works that have been identified in their long term capital works program.
“These funds will be used by the Shire of Gannawarra to replace an old timber bridge on O'Reilly's Road south of Cohuna and upgrade a section of the Macorna-Pyramid Road,” Cr Fehring said.
Mr Mulder said the 2011-12 Victorian Budget included nearly $601 million for road projects that would deliver significant improvements for motorists, particularly in outer suburban and regional areas.

Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh, has expressed his delight at the success of several local Transport Connections bus services which have received approval to continue operating on a permanent basis.
“The importance of bus services for our rural communities to access larger centres is vital for those communities long term survival,” Mr Walsh said.
“Many people prefer to live in smaller, rural communities but access to essential services is often limited and so there is an important need for transport services to larger centres where these essential services are located.
“The decision by the Department of Transport to make permanent the bus routes which service the communities of Sea Lake, Wycheproof, Boort, St Arnaud and Marnoo justify the efforts of these towns to have a service provided to them,” he said.
“The trial periods for these routes all indicated a high level of usage indicating the need for them to be maintained to enable the residents to travel to the larger centres which have the services these residents are seeking.
“I congratulate these communities and the local Transport Connections Program workers who have lobbied so well to have the services initiated and, now, given permanence,” Mr Walsh said.

Speaking in Parliament last week Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh, called on the Brumby Government to install a turning lane on the Calder Highway into the Charlton Bluestone Quarry.
The line of site for passing traffic and for trucks entering or exiting the quarry is very limited and this section of the very busy highway has been recognised by the Buloke Council as a major priority area for urgent upgrading.
“The Charlton Bluestone Quarry has a large number of B-Double trucks who enter and exit the quarry at this point and the existing arrangements are a serious safety concern,” Mr Walsh said.
“With no turning lane available, southbound traffic must either pull up behind a turning truck or drive off the bitumen and onto the gravel to get by the waiting vehicle.
“On a major road such as the main link between Melbourne and Mildura this is an intolerable situation and one which the government needs to address as a matter of great urgency,” Mr Walsh said.
“I urge the Brumby Government to install a turning lane before there is a significant accident at this site,” he said.

Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh, has congratulated the Calder Highway Improvement Committee, which comprises 9 Councils covering the length of the highway, on identifying the Calder Alternative Highway intersection at Ravenswood as its highest priority for urgent development works.

“This is an intersection which has a proven record of accidents and near misses with another fatal accident last year,” Mr Walsh said.

“The issue was again raised in Parliament last year when the Minister for Roads, Tim Pallas, was asked to request VicRoads to carry out a review of the intersection.

“Unfortunately, that request has obviously fallen on deaf ears as there has been no response from the Minister.

“Traffic at the intersection continues to grow with more and more large, commercial vehicles accessing the Calder Highway at what is clearly a dangerous and unsuitable road junction.

“I urge the Calder Highway Improvement Committee to maintain the pressure on the Minister and VicRoads as I will be in Parliament,” Mr Walsh said.

Last week in Parliament, Member for Swan Hill Peter Walsh raised the issue of the state of the Birchip-Sea Lake Road.

“This road is an absolute disgrace,” Mr Walsh said.

“Almost 12 months ago VicRoads erected large, red ‘Slow Down’ signs around a particularly bad section and painted identification marks on the road surface indicating that works were imminent but nothing has been done since then.

“This section of road just north of Birchip is extremely dangerous and even with the speed restricted to 80kmh, passengers in a motor car can find themselves being thrown violently around.

“The impact in a large B-double truck travelling along the route is magnified immeasurably,” he said.

“Traffic along this road increases markedly at this time of the year because of harvest and the school holidays starting in a couple of weeks.

“The risk of a serious accident, especially to unwary visitors to the region, has obviously not been considered by VicRoads in their works schedule,” Mr Walsh said.

“Unfortunately, this works schedule is severely hampered by the lack of funding provided for country roads maintenance by the Brumby Government.

“In the 2009-10 budget, the State Labor Government reduced funding for resurfacing of country roads by nearly 10%,” he said.

“As the Liberal-Nationals Coalition has continually said ‘If you invest in country roads, you save country lives’.

“If the Brumby Government was really serious about reducing the country road toll they would provide funds so that dangerous sections of road such as this Birchip-Sea Lake section could be maintained appropriately,” Mr Walsh said.

The Brumby Government must conduct an urgent audit of Victoria’s rolling stock to ensure this year’s grain harvest reaches port, Shadow Minister for Agriculture Peter Walsh said today.

Mr Walsh said grain growers were concerned they would be unable to fully capitalise on the bumper crop expected this season due to a lack of rolling stock.

“There is something wrong when Victoria’s grain growers are concerned that Victoria no longer has the rail rolling stock needed to transport a normal harvest,” Mr Walsh said.

“Prolonged drought in Victoria has caused rail freight operators to transfer some of Victoria’s grain trains interstate and have them converted to standard gauge, meaning they are not readily available to come back to Victoria.

“I have been advised Pacific National will run just four trains this year, instead of the seven to nine trains that transported Victoria’s harvest in good seasons.

“Another two trains could be available as a result of the Australian Wheat Board’s contract with El Zorro, but this will not be enough to meet requirements.

“With this year’s crop shaping up to be one of the best in years, it would be a tragedy for growers if they couldn’t capitalise on it because there wasn’t enough rolling stock to get grain to port for export.”

Mr Walsh said the Brumby Government needed to sit down immediately with rail freight operators to ensure Victoria had enough trains to cope with the harvest.

“If there aren’t enough train sets to move this year’s harvest, growers will face delays and extra costs in getting the grain to port,” Mr Walsh said.

”The harvest will need to be transported by road, adding extra strain to freight routes which are already in poor condition.

“Victoria’s incompetent Transport Minister Lynne Kosky claims she expects most of this year’s harvest to be transported by rail, yet has not assured growers that the rail freight system has the capacity to transport the harvest.

“With the harvest starting only weeks away, the Brumby Government is running out of time to ensure there are enough trains available,” Mr Walsh said.

Media: Peter Walsh 0428 507 541