RESIDENTS, commuters, ambulances and hospital patients will have to wait until at least 2025 for work to start on traffic lights and safety upgrades at the Graham Street-Numurkah Road intersection.
After a recent traffic incident at the Graham Street intersection, Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell spoke in parliament to call out the state Labor government for their failure to follow through on a 2022 funding promise and start the intersection upgrade works.
In 2022, then-Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll announced $700,000 to upgrade the intersection, including the installation of traffic lights. Two years later in 2024 nothing had been done.
After the Federal government committed $2.2M toward upgrading the Graham Street intersection in May 2024, Ms Lovell called on the state Labor government to stop delaying the project and get work started.
“The state Labor government has been persistently delaying this project. After being stuck in planning for two years, there was hope construction would finally commence this year, but the Minister for Roads has now said that construction is not expected to begin until 2025.”
The Minister for Roads and Roads Safety Melissa Horne responded to Ms Lovell’s question, saying that the $700,000 was to make the project ready to receive construction funding.
But it seems that the project is still not ready, because even though Commonwealth money is now committed, the Minister says construction is not expected to begin until 2025.
