Band-aid repairs are a life hazard

Extract from Chronicle article 6th Feb 06 writtenBy Jeff Zeuschner
Editorial comments by Greg naylor in black

FEARS motorists will be killed on a collapsing stretch of the Wangaratta-Whitfield Road have intensified, after a vehicle was gutted by a huge bit of bitumen which bubbled up from the road last week. The 10 kilogram boulder the size of a large watermelon formed from the broken road's crust and smashed open the transmission of a sedan.
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Local residents in the valley have been lobbying for a major upgrade of the road, and late last month garnered the support of Nationals leader Peter Ryan and local member Bill Sykes (MLA, Benalla) after an on-site inspection. David Maples, president of the King Valley Vignerons, said Mr Sykes had made representation to Transport Minister Peter Batchelor and he would attempt to take the boulder in to state parliament to make a point this week.

Lobbying for an upgrade to the Whitfield Road has been going on for years. It was an ongoing lobby of the Upper King Valley Action Association headedup by the late Adele Tyler and David Maples.

"This incident clearly illustrates just how grave the whole foundation of the road really is," Mr Maples said. "We're just lucky no one has been seriously injured, or killed yet. Only last week one of the school buses was flung onto the other side of the road after hitting a deteriorating part of the road."

VicRoads work crews have been carrying out repairs to damaged sections of the road, and were infact working on the road when the boulder incident occurred.

"These repairs are a waste of time...they're a band-aid measure," Mr Maples said. "Work crews are fixing holes during the day, only to find more damage the next morning caused by B-doubles running all night carting pine logs from the area. "And it will only get worse with grape harvest soon to start and an expected 20,000 tonnes of grape product to be transported from the valley."

The overnight damage is as close as a metre from the extensive digout works that have been carried out. Even though there are speed restrictions where Vicroads have identified problems, the new damage overnight is a real hazard as you don't know where the next damage will appear until it is too late.

Mr Maples insisted total reconstruction of about eight kilometres of road is needed - sentiments shared by the Moyhu branch of the Victorian Farmers Federation, who have also written to Mr Sykes expressing safety concerns for motorists.

VicRoads regional manager Bruce Sweet said there was no major funding to do further upgrades on the road at this point. However, he said the long term needs of the road were to be assessed and could be considered as part of the 2006/07 budget deliberations.

If this was occurring in the Wangaratta CBD - or on the Hume Highway - funding would be found overnight to fix it. But, then again, those roads were probably made properly.

Mr Sweet said speed restrictions are in place on the damaged section of the road and he is urging motorists to abide by them.