By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
UNDER the state government’s Safer Road Infrastructure Program (SRIP), $2.8 million will be injected into the South Gippsland Freeway in Hallam to improve its safety.
The upgrade, announced on Monday, is set to begin early next year and is to be completed by mid-2014. It comes after the Victorian Government boosted funding for the SRIP program to $1 billion over 10 years in a bid to reduce the risks to road users.
South Eastern Metropolitan Region MP Inga Peulich said the additional funding will help address the history of crashes that have affected the Hallam area of the freeway in recent times.
“Since April 2012 there have been 18 casualty crashes in this area, including two fatalities and seven serious injuries,” Ms Peulich said.
“To reduce run-off road crashes, a number of treatments are being carried out including the installation of over seven kilometres of wire rope safety barriers and 300 metres of guard fence, along with a new landscaping regime to ensure non-hazardous vegetation is established along the road side.”
Ms Peulich said the increased SRIP program is the centrepiece of Victoria’s Road Safety Strategy 2013-2022, which has a renewed focus on measuring and preventing serious injuries.
“The great thing about the Safer Road Infrastructure Program is that it is targeted to areas where it can have a specific and immediate safety benefit, making it more effective than alternate programs,” Ms Peulich said.
“As part of this program, hundreds of locations around the state will get safety improvements which will have a significant impact in reducing road trauma.”
