Cuts in funding to upgrade the Pacific Highway will mean dumping road safety projects at two black spots rated by the NRMA as among the most dangerous on the road.
Mini-budget documents show that the Treasury will save $250 million by indefinitely deferring work on sections of the highway at Banora Point and Ewingsdale on the North Coast.
The deferrals are part of a cut of $300 million in Pacific Highway funding, with the rest coming from axing two projects the Government has not specified.
An NRMA-sponsored audit last year found the Banora Point stretch - also known as the Sexton Hill deviation - was the worst accident black spot on the highway, where 127 crashes, 61 injuries and two fatalities had occurred between 2003 and 2005. For years the motoring body and the local community have been demanding the stretch be upgraded.
In September 2006 the State Government produced a plan to straighten the road's treacherous curves and improve visibility. "It just stuns me that of all the things the Government could cut, it has elected to defer projects on a stretch of road where people have died and will continue to die," the president of the NRMA, Alan Evans, said.
"These are known black spots and as a former roads minister, Eric Roozendaal knows that. We will be looking at how we can mobilise our membership to stop these measures, which are an attack on motorists. This is intolerable. People are dying because of the state of this highway."
The Government has also elected not to upgrade the stretch of the highway from Tintenbar to Ewingsdale near Byron Bay.
This includes another black spot - the run through Ewingsdale to the Ewingsdale intersection.
According to the NRMA audit, this section was the site of 91 crashes, 47 injuries and four fatalities between 2003 and 2005, making it the fourth-worst black spot on the highway.
Mr Roozendaal's office was unable to explain why the two blackspots were chosen, saying only that the Government would "continue to invest in the Pacific Highway".
"By the end of 2009 the NSW Government will have spent around $2.5 billion on the highway," the spokesman said.
The cuts cast serious doubt over the promise by the state and federal governments to convert the entire highway to dual carriageway by 2016.
About 60 percent of the road has been converted and the Federal Government may now be forced to contribute more funding.
“This mini-budget is an absolute disgrace for the North Coast and it will be paid for by the lives of North Coast residents,” said Kellon Beard, NSW Business Chamber Mid North Coast Regional Manager.
“What the Premier has given with one hand he has taken with the other, and it has come straight out of the vulnerable regional areas of NSW.
“Every local knows that the Pacific Highway is a death trap and now the Premier has stripped the Pacific Highway upgrade of over $300 million after his predecessor, Morris Iemma increased funding in the June Budget.
“Delaying the Pacific Highway upgrade will cost lives.”
Mr Beard said that an NRMA audit of the Pacific Highway had revealed that over 300 people had been killed on the Pacific Highway over the past decade. A delay in completing the project would cost more lives.
“The NSW Government continues to subsidise Sydney toll roads to the tune of over $100 million a year through the M4/M5 cashback scheme but happily takes money from a desperately needed road upgrade to fund its budget shortfall,” said Mr Beard.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff