AFTER spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vast improvements to the Calder Highway over the past decade or so, it now seems likely a new fight to complete the upgrade through to the Tullamarine Freeway will be needed.
The Calder Highway Improvement Committee has called for the urgent construction of the Kings Road interchange to fix a notorious, high accident section of the highway near Taylors Lakes.
While some may think this is a fight for the people closer to Melbourne’s north, they are wrong.
Quite rightly, the Calder Highway Improvement Committee wants all communities along the highway corridor to join the campaign to have the Kings Road interchange constructed as soon as possible as part of the AusLink 2 road funding program.
In order to maximise the investment already made in the section of road from Ravenswood to Kyneton and beyond, it’s imperative the road be finished as soon as possible.
Notwithstanding the need for ongoing works to improve the Calder north of Ravenswood to Mildura, the interchange is the committee’s highest priority, and many readers would identify it as being part of the Calder where speed limits have been reduced to just 80kmh because of the high crash statistics recorded along the stretch of road in recent years.
The five-year AusLink 2 program rolls out from 2009, highlighting the need for a sustained and co-ordinated campaign to remind our politicians just how sensitive people are to the Calder and how we will not tolerate the road being used as a political football ever again.
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