National highway on road to ruin
Cole
26jan02
The Courier-Mail
AUSTRALIA'S peak road network is no safer than back roads or rural highways and urgently needs upgrading, the Australian Automobile Association has said.
The AAA yesterday released the final version of its report into the National Highway System and called on the Federal Government to significantly boost road funding.
The report says the 18,600km highway network had a multi-billion dollar maintenance backlog, and "it can be assumed the NHS is constantly deteriorating".
"Simple road improvements such as sealing shoulders and increasing the number of lanes and dividing highways, can save lives," it says. "Better designed roads, particularly those that separate traffic streams, are significantly safer and cheaper (in terms of road trauma) for the community."
AAA research and policy director John Metcalfe said the national highway had a slightly higher fatality rate than other roads, carrying 14.2 per cent of traffic volume and accounting for 14.6 per cent of road deaths.
"I think there's an expectation amongst motorists that the National Highway System would be a better, safer road than say a rural road or a link road or an arterial route," Mr Metcalfe said.
"We were a bit surprised to find that it is not."
He said the Federal Government had agreed with the states to target a 40 per cent reduction in the road toll over a decade.
But the AAA believed there should be a similar target specifically for the NHS.
The key to reducing deaths on the highway was to increase the use of dual carriageways on busy sections, and provide more overtaking lanes and better surfacing in other areas.
A spokesman for Transport Minister John Anderson said the Government had allocated $3.1 billion over the next four years to maintaining and upgrading the national highway.
Mr Anderson's spokesman also said $180 million would be spent in the same period on continuing the Black Spot program.
In Queensland, the AAA report called for improvements to the Bruce Highway north of Cooroy including four lanes to Gympie, better quality roads and overtaking lanes on the Landsborough, Warrego and Barkly highways.
It also says the Cunningham Highway needs to be expanded between Ipswich and Amberley.
In Brisbane, the AAA says national highway traffic needs to be removed from local traffic areas on the city's south, particularly in the Kessels Rd area of Mt Gravatt.