WA regional roads to get $17.5m in upgrades

Seven regional roads in Western Australia, including Great Eastern Highway and Indian Ocean Drive, will receive $17.5 million worth of upgrades this financial year in efforts to improve safety and prevent run-off crashes.

The projects are funded by the Road Trauma Trust Account (RTTA) and will bring the state government’s total FY20 investment in regional run-off roads to $42.5 million.

Each of the projects will get around 60 kilometres of road upgrades.

The projects comprise upgrades to Albany Highway ($3.85 million), Great Eastern Highway ($3.8 million), Brand Highway ($2.5 million), North West Coastal Highway ($2 million), Pinjarra-Williams Road ($1.2 million), Collie-Lake King Road ($1.15 million), and Indian Ocean Drive ($345,000).

Project development activities, including environmental approvals, are budgeted at $2.7 million.

Road Safety Minister Michelle Roberts said the upgrades would include widening roads and installing safety barriers.

“We know that single vehicle run-off crashes are one of the biggest causes of fatal and serious injury crashes in regional WA,” she said.

“We’re seeing more and more crashes caused by simple errors of judgement or moments of inattention.”

In 2017, 46 people were killed and 280 people were seriously injured in run-off road crashes in regional WA.

There were a further 99 fatalities on the state's rural roads in 2019, according to the Road Safety Commission.

The seven roads chosen for the upgrades were identified based on having an above-average single vehicle run-off road crash risk.

Upgrade works are already under way and are nearing completion.

Ms Roberts said the state government was also seeking a funding partnership with the federal government to accelerate its Regional Road Safety Program.

The proposed partnership would upgrade 17,000km of regional road over nine years, at a cost of $100 million per year.