No funds yet for dangerous turn-off

An “exceptional increase” in crashes at the intersection of Crossman-Dwarda Road and Albany Highway has not been enough to prioritise funding for the turn-off.

Main Roads has completed designs to improve the intersection, after it was identified in a December 2013 Road Safety Audit.

However, Main Roads could not secure the $1.95 million needed to undertake upgrades this financial year.

“As with all road upgrades, funding is prioritised based on safety and efficiency objectives to ensure that sections of roads that require urgent improvements are undertaken,” a Main Roads spokeswoman said.

“The intersection of Crossman-Dwarda Road and Albany Highway is currently ranked equal 6941st across the State in terms of crash frequency.

“This means that there are at least 6940 intersections with a higher priority in terms of road maintenance and upgrade requirements.”

Boddington police officer in charge and Shire of Boddington president Martin Glynn said driver inattention had led to four recent crashes.

“There’s been an exceptional increase in crash activity there. there’s been four crashes across different parts of that intersection this year, where it has not been a hotspot in the past,” Sgt Glynn said.

“Most of the accidents relate to turning vehicles on the road, three of them were rear-end crashes, one was a vehicle entering the highway and two were the vehicle leaving the highway.”

Nationals WA leader Mia Davies, the members for Central Wheatbelt which covers Boddington, criticised the State Government for not funding the upgrades.

“High-speed Albany Highway traffic is growing with more tourists travelling to the Peel, southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions, along with an ever-increasing freight task and regular commuters,” Ms Davies said.

“Main Roads WA has already completed development planning for improvement works to these intersections but the Minister refuses to fund construction, saying it is competing with other funding priorities, presumably Metronet.

“That’s not good enough.”