Residents question $15m Barton promise

BARTON HIGHWAY: Federal Hume MP Angus Taylor has rejected claims the newly announced $15 million to install more overtaking lanes and widen sections of the Barton Highway are “band-aid” measures.

Some Murrumbateman and Yass residents are concerned the upgrade would come at the expense of plans to eventually duplicate the Barton.
However, Mr Taylor said all future works on the Barton would now form part of the staged duplication, a practice not done in the past.
He and state Member for Goulburn Pru Goward jointly announced a Liberal state government would commit $3 million if elected on March 28, and the Federal government had agreed to fund up to $12 million under its Infrastructure Investment Programme.
It would be used to install additional overtaking lanes and safety works between Wallaroo and Murrumbateman, including along the “mad mile” north of Wallaroo.
A full estimate on the cost to extend the dual carriageway a further 33km between Yass and Canberra is difficult to find. Roads and Maritime Services figures from April 2012 were $900 million.
Mr Taylor said the improvements were an exciting start to the duplication process.
“A series of overtaking lanes and road widening works along the busiest stretches of the highway are far from band-aids, they will be real improvements to save time and save lives – and they are an important part in the staged duplication,” he said.

[pull_quote_center]…far from band-aids, they will be real improvements to save time and save lives – Angus Taylor[/pull_quote_center]

“We are determined to ensure each piece of work builds on past work, unlike the band-aid jobs of the past. No [road] is ever turned into a four lane highway overnight, so let’s get behind a realistic staged plan,” he commented.
“All past work was based on black spot funding – this is not.”
Labor’s Goulburn candidate Ursula Stephens said this was a properly researched and funded commitment to improve identified danger spots on a notoriously dangerous highway.
What she’d like to see is the duplication in its entirety.
“It’s only $15 million, and the Federal Government has already pulled so much funding back from infrastructure… We all know it’s a drop in the ocean, but if it saves one life, it will be worth it,” Dr Stephens told Scoop.
Local resident Bec Duncan had little faith in the planned upgrade considering that works already carried out had deteriorated significantly already.
“I really don’t see the point in yet more road works that don’t actually improve safety or travel times – unless they will form part of the final duplicated road. It’s just more band-aid “solutions” when the bullet should just be bitten. And if the same organisation that build the new lanes is the one that built the new Gounyan part of the road, and the [Capricorn] Stud corner, then god help us,” she posted on Facebook.
“They’ve both been repaired at least four times now.”
Murrumbateman resident Sayerah Deasey feared the commitment would be downgraded after election time.
“The announcement says UP TO $12 million from the Federal government, how do we know it won’t be downgraded like every other promise? At the moment your promise is $3 million with the extra at the discretion of the Federal government. Not sure you will get it and with MacIntosh [Circuit works] costing $4.5 million, I doubt that little amount will get you anything.”
Mr Taylor reiterated he had kept all infrastructure funding commitments.

PHOTO (courtesy of Angus Taylor’s office) Sophie Wade from the Duplicate the Barton Highway group, Goulburn MP Pru Goward, unknown, Angus Taylor and Ed Storey.