The state government’s claim that it was unable to raise the causeway on Tyers Road during construction of the new Latrobe River Bridge due to catchment management “requirements” has been questioned by the Nationals Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron.
The new bridge shut in January just three weeks after it opened, and repeated calls have been made to raise the southern causeway to prevent further flooding, including a petition tabled by Mr Cameron this week.
Minister for Roads Melissa Horne has maintained that raising the causeway wasn’t an option because “requirements from the Catchment Management Authority must be met to ensure that areas upstream (of Latrobe River) are not adversely impacted”.
But documentation of a public consultation held in 2017 shows the state government didn’t raise the causeway because “additional costs would have been incurred… to comply with… West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority requirements”. *
“It’s there in black and white – raising the causeway to prevent flooding could have been done but the government didn’t want to pay for it.
“Claiming the additional costs would have “reduced the viability of the project” can be translated to “it’s too expensive”.
“Labor has essentially wasted $10.5 million of taxpayer money to build this bridge, all because it cut corners and didn’t want to pay for the job to be done properly.
“The Latrobe Valley has had a gutful of being short-changed and misled, and we deserve better.
“A regional Victorian community shouldn’t have to scream and shout for decades for this government to take notice and deliver a piece of critical infrastructure.
“The state government claims it would have cost between $10 million and $35 million to raise the causeway on Tyers Road – so it should allocatee that funding in the upcoming Budget.”
