THE Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell, has raised concerns about the Shepparton Bypass project during an adjournment debate in State Parliament last week, calling on the Minister for
Infrastructure, Jacinta Allan, to release the business case for the project.
Ms Lovell said the delays by the Government to release the project’s business case raise doubts about the State’s commitment to the project.
The business case for the project was funded in the 2017-18 State Budget and was due to be released to the public in 2019. Ms Allan had revised this release date to late 2020.
The Shepparton Bypass project includes three individual projects which have been bought together under one business case to provide an alternative route for trucks, taking them away from the Shepparton CBD.
In parliament last week, Ms Lovell requested Ms Allan to immediately release the business case or at least provide the community with a definitive date that it will
be released.
Ms Lovell said that since the funding of the business case, three State Budgets had been delivered without further funding committed for the project from the Government.
The Federal Government committed $208M towards Stage 1 of the Shepparton Bypass project in the 2019-20 Federal Budget. “Ms Allan’s latest timeline for release of the business case was late 2020, yet here we are in mid-December and still nothing. The Shepparton community has waited for the bypass for decades and the State Government needs to take action now to get the project started,” Ms Lovell said.
“Jacinta Allan needs to stop stalling, release the business case and allocate funding for the bypass as a matter of priority.”
In response to an enquiry from The Adviser, a spokesperson from
Ms Allan’s office said, “A project of this scale and complexity requires careful planning and extensive investigations. The business case is expected to be complete by the end of 2020.”
The spokesperson also said the Federal Government’s commitment of $208M is “significantly lower than what is required to deliver this project”.
The project will be funded by the Federal and State Governments on an 80:20 basis, with the total cost of the project to be determined by the business case.
