GREATER Sheppartonians will continue to wait for the Shepparton Bypass Project business case, more than 12 months after it was initially scheduled to be released to the public.
The Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell, has again called on Transport Infrastructure Minister, Jacinta Allan, to release the business case for the project, which will provide an alternative north-south route for trucks, taking them away from the Shepparton CBD.
Stage 1 of the project will link the Midland Highway in Mooroopna to the Goulburn Valley Highway in Shepparton North.
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 Federal Government committed $208M towards Stage 1 in the 2019-20 Federal Budget.
According to Major Road Projects Victoria, the dedicated government body in charge of planning and delivering major road projects in the state, the project is at the stage of “completing various technical studies to understand the impacts and benefits of all three projects.
“We’ll also continue working with Regional Roads Victoria and the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation to carry out cultural heritage surveys for the Shepparton Bypass Stage 1 and Ford and Wanganui roads,” the Major Road Projects Victoria website says.
Ms Lovell said the Government “has used every excuse possible to avoid committing to build the Shepparton bypass and delaying the business case further frustrates this vital project.
“Jacinta Allan has failed to meet previous deadlines and now appears to have failed to meet her own deadline of the end of 2020.”
In response to an inquiry from The Adviser to the Minister’s office, we received the following response:
“Major Roads Project Victoria completed a final draft of the Business Case for the Bypassing Shepparton project in December 2020. It is now undergoing review and evaluation with the Department of Transport.”
Asked when the business case would be released, The Adviser received no reply.
