Member for Barker Tony Pasin has hit out at the State Labor Government for allowing Federal Government funding intended to improve road safety left unspent while a dangerous intersection at Southend remains unfixed.
The Federal Government’s Black Spot Road Safety program delivers $120m per year to target road locations where crashes are occurring or are at risk of occurring.
The program aims to reduce the risk of fatal and serious injury crashes, saving the community many times the cost of the relatively minor road improvements that are implemented.
“The Southend community and the Wattle Range Council have been fighting for a left hand turn for well over a decade,” Mr Pasin said.
“Calls for a slip lane have been backed by myself and the RAA and yet the State Government refuse to accept that this treatment is necessary, and instead have made every effort to reject the project’s eligibility for funding through the Black Spot program.”
Mr Pasin said the latest round of Black Spot funding allocated $5.9m worth of projects in South Australia despite $8.5m available in the funding pool for the state.
“Minister Koutsantonis wants to use every excuse in the book as to why he will not commit to fix the intersection on the Southern Ports Highway at Southend, including having the department cost the installation of traffic lights as the solution and in doing so ensured the figure is unnecessarily high,” Mr Pasin said.
