Highway works 'waste of money'

ROADWORKS on the Lyell Highway near Granton have been described as a waste of money by Lyons Greens MHA Tim Morris. Speaking in Parliament last month, Mr Morris said the $14 million government election promise had turned out to be a case of overkill.

“After watching the road project that is being undertaken on the Lyell Highway … I have not seen such a waste of money in a long time, as far as I am concerned. This is overkill in the extreme,” Mr Morris said in Parliament on June 11.

Contractors have now spent several months on major excavations in the vicinity of Limekiln Point. “It is great work for the engineers and the boys with the Tonka toys, but in terms of road safety outcomes, I believe that there is going to be delivered minimal improvement for a lot of money,” Mr Morris said.

“We are seeing thousands of cubic metres of rock having to be broken up to take one little corner off to improve the sight distance marginally. I believe the same safety outcome could have been achieved by applying a little bit more to the road pavement width to provide some more sealed shoulder,” he said.

“I am not complaining about the upgrading of the culvert but moving the 80km/h sign 200 metres would have probably achieved the same, if not a better, road safety outcome than something like $1 million worth of rock removal. I cannot believe that that was necessary.

“I was involved with the planning study for the in 2001 and I am also seriously disappointed about the lack of provision for cycle lanes on that highway.”

Mr Morris’ remarks did not draw any government response, other than former Infrastructure Minister Jim Cox’s observation that Mr Morris was “particularly touchy”.