Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has called for a safer Princes Highway to be fast-tracked.
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Mr McCormack toured the highway on Tuesday, December 18, at the invitation of the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner’s Fix It Now campaign, stopping at crash scenes.
“What I saw was a road which by yesteryear standards is a pretty good road,” he said.
“But the fact is, the road is being used a lot more now than it ever has been in the past.”
While Mr McCormack could not be drawn on a funding commitment, he said the upgrade was a priority for the federal government.
“The end is in sight on the Pacific Highway and then the focus will come onto the Princes Highway,” he said.
“We need to now look at what we can do to fast track the Princes Highway.”
Fix It Now has been campaigning for a divided dual carriageway between Nowra and the Victorian border. Mr McCormack agreed bipartisanship was necessary.
“I will work in conjunction with my state colleagues to see what we can do,” he said. “We generally fund these projects with an 80-20 funding split. If you lose a loved one you don’t want to see politicians playing politics, you don’t care where the funding comes from, you just want the roads built.”
Surf Beach mother Veronika Tuckey added her voice to Fix it Now after being critically injured in a crash south of Batemans Bay in November 2017.
In Feburary 2018 a truck collided with a four-wheel drive towing a caravan north of Batemans Bay at Cockwhy, with five people taken to hospital.
A teen was killed and four others hurt in a head-on crash on the highway near Tilba Tilba in January 2017.