The Princes Highway will have eight new roadside stopping areas as part of the Victorian Government’s $51.5 million investment in safety upgrades for the highway.
In response to community feedback, Victorian Minister for Roads and Minister for Road Safety and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Jaala Pulford, announced that six new stopping areas would be installed on the Melbourne-bound side of the highway and two new bays on the Bairnsdale-bound side of the highway.
The new pull-over areas will be large enough to accommodate trucks and bring the total number of stopping bays to 12 Melbourne-bound and eight Bairnsdale-bound – or roughly every 3-4km. This will provide drivers with more opportunities to pull over in this section of the highway.
The installation of the new pull-over areas is expected to begin in October 2019 and be completed in December.
The safety upgrades also include the installation of flexible safety barriers on the roadside and along the centre of the road.
Regional Roads Victoria has undertaken a thorough risk assessment and will only install roadside barriers at high-risk areas in the remaining section of works – between Providence Ponds and Bairnsdale – where there are clusters of trees or other hazards.
The entire package of works, including the installation of barriers between Providence Ponds and Bairnsdale and final road sealing, is due to be completed in early 2020.
The Princes Highway safety upgrade is part of the $1.4 billion Towards Zero Action Plan funded through the TAC.
“I asked Regional Roads Victoria to work closely with the community on the rollout of this life-saving infrastructure – and that’s exactly what they’ve done,” Ms Pulford said.
“These pull-over sections strike a balance between safety and community feedback on this section of the Princes Highway.”
