Tuesday 13 October 2015

Room for improvement for WA’s riskiest roads

RAC has today released its 12 month Risky Roads campaign scorecard, revealing that work still needs to be done on the State’s most dangerous roads.

RAC General Manager Corporate Affairs, Will Golsby, said the scorecard looked at the progress made on the roads that were nominated by the community as the State’s riskiest roads 12 months ago.

“We acknowledge and welcome the construction underway on some of the roads identified, but we’re extremely concerned that that work on the rest has not commenced,” Mr Golsby said.

With over 5,000 nominations last year, the Risky Roads survey empowers community members to voice their concerns about dangerous roads and intersections, so authorities can get them fixed and ultimately try to save lives and stop serious injuries occurring on our roads.

Roads nominated including the Bussell Highway in Capel, Bruce Rock-Merredin Road in Merredin, Indian Ocean Drive in Lancelin, Albany Highway in Kojonup and Minilya-Exmouth Road in Exmouth have received no work to improve them, and 50 per cent of the riskiest intersections have no construction underway.

“These results highlight the urgent need for the State Government to deliver more funding, but the current State Budget only confirms a reduction in spending.

“This is on top of the huge backlog in road maintenance which was identified in 2009 by the Auditor General, and estimated to be $800 million.

“Construction on these dangerous roads is critical because the road fatality rate in WA is too high. Tragically, we have already lost 124 loved ones on WA roads this year.”

RAC is also continuing to urge Western Australians to be careful behind the wheel and drive to the conditions.

Risky Roads is WA’s largest road infrastructure community survey and is undertaken to provide a snapshot of community perceptions, insight for road authorities and assist in identifying trends in traffic flow, infrastructure and safety.

For a copy of the 2015 scorecard, visit Risky Roads.

Media Contact: Georgina Forde 0401 703 719

Top ten roads Construction Rank Road Issue underway 1 Gnangara Road, Lexia Increased vehicle traffic.  Poor road quality, lack of overtaking 2 Bussell Highway, Capel  opportunities. 3 Beechboro Road North, Cullacabardee Increased traffic, poor road condition.  Increased traffic, poor road condition and lack of 4 Toodyay Road, Red Hill to Toodyay  overtaking opportunities. Great Eastern Highway – Coolgardie to 5 Poor road quality and width.  Southern Cross 6 Great Northern Highway, Bindi-Bindi Poor road quality and width.  7 Great Eastern Highway Bypass, Hazelmere Poor road quality.  8 Bruce Rock-Merredin Road, Merredin Poor road quality and width.  Poor road quality and width. Vegetation 9 South Western Highway, Manjimup  encroaching on road. Poor road quality and lack of overtaking 10* Indian Ocean Drive, Lancelin  opportunities. 10* Coalfields Highway, Collie Narrow road and bridge.  * Two roads drew in the rank for number 10.

Top ten intersections Construction Rank Intersection Reason underway Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities and 1 Beechboro Road x Gnangara Road, Lexia  poor road surface. Ocean Reef Road x Edgewater Drive, 2 Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities.  Edgewater Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities. Ennis Ave x Port Kennedy Drive, Port 3 Speed of vehicles is too high and a confusing  Kennedy intersection layout. Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities. Mandurah Road x Surf Drive, Secret 4 Speed of vehicles is too high and a confusing  Harbour intersection layout. Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities and 5 Reid Highway x Malaga Drive, Noranda  an inadequate traffic light system. Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities and Berkshire Road x Roe Highway, an inadequate and confusing traffic light system. 6  Forrestfield Vegetation blocking visibility of oncoming traffic was also an issue. 7 North Lake Road x Bibra Drive, Bibra Lake Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities.  Beaufort Street x Walcott Street, Mt 8 Difficulty turning right with existing traffic lights.  Lawley Confusing intersection layout with difficulty Albany Highway x South Coast Highway, turning right from South Coast Highway onto Albany (includes Chester Pass x Hanrahan 9 Albany Highway and sight issues for left turning  x North Road x Albany Highway traffic. Significant conflict with nearby roundabout roundabout) and high volume of heavy vehicle traffic. Tonkin Highway x Gosnells Road West, Inadequate crossing or turning opportunities, 10  Martin Speed of vehicles is too high.