Rudd throws $1bn at Melbourne roads

[btm]

From what i hear, Melbourne's road arent that bad... what about Sydney!!! Our roads are farking sheit!


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22640840-5012863,00.html

A $1 BILLION upgrade of Melbourne's major roads was promised today by Kevin Rudd with a major boost to the Western Ring Road and the West Gate Bridge.

Campaigning in Melbourne, Mr Rudd announced $900 million injection to begin the widening of the Western Ring Road.

A further $120 million will be spent on the strengthening of the West Gate Bridge.

Mr Rudd said the Western Ring Road upgrade would create up to 6500 jobs during construction with a further 5500 flow-on jobs after the road was finished.

The bridge strengthening program would start in late 2008 or early 2009 and both projects would be delivered with the assistance of the Victorian Government.

Of the $1 billion, $900 million would be set aside to start the $2.25 billion upgrade of the Western Ring Road.

The rest of today's announcement would be spent on the West Gate Bridge.

The Western Ring Road works would include extra lanes to improve traffic flow and improved signage and signals.

"The West Gate Bridge is another key component of the Melbourne urban corridor and its ability to handle growing freight movement between east and west Melbourne and the Port of Melbourne is vital to keep the city flowing and increase transport productivity," he said.

"The proposed works include upgrading bridge barriers, improving security systems and reinforcement of the bridge structure.

"Rampant growth is putting great strain on Victorian infrastructure like road and rail."

These projects would remove the last series bottle necks on Melbourne's key transport corridors.

[USC]

thats alright hey?

[bornwild]

I can live with that :). Western RR needs a bloody update anyway.

Oh yeah...Sydney.......where was that again?:p

[oneightoo]

I can live with that :). Western RR needs a bloody update anyway.

Oh yeah...Sydney.......where was that again?:p

north of you.. sydney is above melbourne :p

[btm]

north of you.. sydney is above melbourne :p

baahahaaha :D good one matt!

[Vectracious]

north of you.. sydney is above melbourne :p

yeah, well hot air rises I suppose.... :p

West Gate Bridge definitely needs some cash thrown at it - quite old and all those trucks going over it all day every day. I actually know people that don't even go over the West Gate Bridge coz they are scared its going to fall down.

[KID_SRi]

yeah, well hot air rises I suppose.... :p

West Gate Bridge definitely needs some cash thrown at it - quite old and all those trucks going over it all day every day. I actually know people that don't even go over the West Gate Bridge coz they are scared its going to fall down.

The West Gate is about 20 Years overdue for a Upgrade.
Its had stress fractures in the structure for ages.

[Black Nugget]

melbourne roads are so much better than sydneys yet theyre getting the money!

Don't know how many of you have driven from melbourne to sydney but you can tell where the border is cas it changes from split dual carridge way to one lane shithouse highway.

And what about the pacific highway!

Probably all political BS anyway:mad:

[btm]

the pacific hwy has received funding i believe

[maloo97]

melbourne roads are so much better than sydneys yet theyre getting the money!

Don't know how many of you have driven from melbourne to sydney but you can tell where the border is cas it changes from split dual carridge way to one lane shithouse highway.

And what about the pacific highway!

Probably all political BS anyway:mad:

Totally Agree with that.

[rjastra]

HUme Highway in Vic is better simply because:

1. Its about 1/3 the overall length of the Hume Highway.
2. It's flat and relatively straight in VIC.
3. All they had to do was slap another highway next to the old road to get a dual carriageway.

[btm]

its even the same when you drive in and out of the ACT.... stooopid nsw

[oneightoo]

yeah, well hot air rises I suppose.... :p

yep, you're 100% correct..

rises all the way to brisbane :p

[btm]

yep, you're 100% correct..

rises all the way to brisbane :p

i was waiting for one of the Qld clowns to say something about them being above us all... but this is heaps funnier :D

[bornwild]

north of you.. sydney is above melbourne :p

Oh yeah :D

I agree with you, however. Last time I was in Sydney I thought I was in a 3rd world country mate...

[oneightoo]

lol that hot air the rises to nsw originated somewhere........

mexico?

[Vectracious]

lol that hot air the rises to nsw originated somewhere........

mexico?

well, to save time, we just moved the producers up there as well... :offtopic::spam:

and back on to Kevin Rudd's Policies now .... :p:D

[JohnBu]

don't trust labor,

i remember Bracksy (previous Labor Vic Premier) stating he won't toll the new freeway in the east. after the election, what do you know, tollways.

i'll spit in his face if I met him.. ****en knob. hasn't done one good thing in his 2.5 terms in power.

[RudeOne]

what about freaking qld?

We have the worst infrastructure in the country!! We are about to get level 6 water restrictions!! How about VIC lend us that 1 billion for some water, hey we will even go halfs so we can put some water in the murray!!!!

[dieselhead]

Do not vote Labor. I repeat, do not vote Labor. Rudd can not be trusted, he is a useless media monkey, just like the State premiers.
I don't like Howard, but I'm afraid of Labor. Not hard to guess how I'll vote then! :)

[EL BURITO]

Do not vote Labor. I repeat, do not vote Labor. Rudd can not be trusted, he is a useless media monkey, just like the State premiers.
I don't like Howard, but I'm afraid of Labor. Not hard to guess how I'll vote then! :)
the Greens :rolleyes:

[KID_SRi]

Don't know how many of you have driven from melbourne to sydney but you can tell where the border is cas it changes from split dual carridge way to one lane shithouse highway.


Thats before they improved the NSW Side,Trucks used to swerve to miss each other head on in Tarcutta because the road was so narrow.
But the Hume is getting better on the NSW side, They look like by-passing alot more Small Towns that Highway currently runs through.

[oneightoo]

Do not vote Labor. I repeat, do not vote Labor. Rudd can not be trusted, he is a useless media monkey, just like the State premiers.
I don't like Howard, but I'm afraid of Labor. Not hard to guess how I'll vote then! :)

lol and howard can be trusted?

[Black Nugget]

lol and howard can be trusted?

very true... lets start a new party!:D

We'll call it OOARI!

(Opel Owners after Road Improvements)

[MatsHolden]

yeah, well hot air rises I suppose.... :p

West Gate Bridge definitely needs some cash thrown at it - quite old and all those trucks going over it all day every day. I actually know people that don't even go over the West Gate Bridge coz they are scared its going to fall down.

lol that's like the Burnley tunnel, one of the engineers that worked on it doesn't let his family use it. hahaha

[oneightoo]

shit! thats telling you something.. if the guy who says if it's safe or not wont use it, then is the public allowed to!?

[Vectracious]

shit! thats telling you something.. if the guy who says if it's safe or not wont use it

It's heresay 182 - Mat - who told you that, your brothers, best friend, cousins, uncle, grandma? :p

[bornwild]

Howard all the way. Labor is just gonna **** up the economy and give too much rights to the workers.

And let's be fair, as lazy as aussie workers are, they don't need any more rights. We need to keep up with the world people.

[Vectracious]

Howard all the way.

You mean Howard for most of the way and Costello for the remainder.....;)

[bill142]

Umm.. Has anyone seen the state of Canberra roads? If this jerk gets in I'm leaving the country.

[MatsHolden]

It's heresay 182 - Mat - who told you that, your brothers, best friend, cousins, uncle, grandma? :p

Was in the paper a while ago.

[btm]

Umm.. Has anyone seen the state of Canberra roads? If this jerk gets in I'm leaving the country.

ACT roads (major ones) IMO are heaps better than NSW

[Black Nugget]

ACT roads (major ones) IMO are heaps better than NSW

exactly NSW is a joke, run by a bunch of fools. If anything bad happnes Iemma just puts on the sad puppy dog face and says "I don't recall"

[btm]

exactly NSW is a joke, run by a bunch of fools. If anything bad happnes Iemma just puts on the sad puppy dog face and says "I don't recall"

i know i certainly didnt vote to put him back in...

[btm]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/tollway-with-3b-sweetener/2007/11/04/1194117879859.html

Tollway with $3b sweetener

THE FEDERAL Government has revealed it would build Sydney's eighth tollway as part of the $3 billion road and rail package it announced yesterday.

The Government would "go to the marketplace and balance value for money for the taxpayer with a toll that is reasonable", a spokesman for the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, said last night. .

The Prime Minister, John Howard, sold the plan as a "Super Sunday" for infrastructure spending as he outlined more than $10.5 billion for new projects across the three eastern states. Sydney would receive $3 billion, Victoria $2.45 billion and Queensland $5.2 billion.

Mr Howard said the spending was part of a commitment to upgrade infrastructure, particularly road and rail "out to the year 2020", with Sydney's population to reach 5.3 million by 2031 from 4.25 million now.

"No South Australian, Western Australian or Tasmanian should feel in any way excluded", Mr Howard said, saying he will be going to each of these states and making further road and rail spending announcements.

For Sydney, roads funding totalling about $1.8 billion is to be financed through the Auslink II funding program, announced in the May federal budget, with $900 million to be spent on freight-rail projects and $300 million on a facility at Defence Department land at Moorebank in Sydney's west, for road freight to be shifted onto rail for transporting to Port Botany or interstate.

This has been the subject of negotiations between the state and federal governments.

The NSW Government welcomed the additional spending, while arguing that much of yesterday's announcements had been made previously.

"Certainly, any investment in Sydney's roads is welcome," the Minister for Roads, Eric Roozendaal, said. "Let's not forget it's been 11 long years and now only three weeks out from an election John Howard has discovered there are roads in Sydney."

The largest commitment was $1.5 billion to start building the missing link between the F3 freeway in Sydney's north, to the M2 in the north-west, extending from Epping to Wahroonga. This is to be funded fully by the Federal Government and the private sector, with the Government saying it plans to "leverage private sector investment" for the project, signalling another toll road - Sydney's eighth.

Recently, the Federal Government received a report from the former judge Mahla Pearlman on the proposed route for this project. Paul Whalen, of the West Pennant Hills Valley Progress Association said the proposed route would simply funnel traffic through the same area, when what was needed was a new road further to the west, with a second crossing of the Hawkesbury River.

The Federal Government also outlined $834 million to be spent on the main north freight rail line, which is to duplicate the link from Strathfield to Hornsby, although there was no mention of the funding for the other $1.5 billion to extend the duplication to Newcastle, which the Federal Government has committed to.

The NSW Minister for Transport, John Watkins, said despite all of the billions in the Federal Government's surplus there was nothing in the announcement for commuters in Sydney's west.

[btm]

And for you southern boys too

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22705453-29277,00.html

$1.56bn promised for South Australian roads

A RE-ELECTED coalition government would provide $1.56 billion in funding for South Australian roads and rail networks, Treasurer Peter Costello says.

The funding, between 2009 and 2014, would include $430 million for highway upgrades in regional SA and more than $760m for Adelaide's urban road network.

Mr Costello made the announcement in the marginal northern Adelaide seat of Wakefield today, saying $120m of the funding package would go towards constructing a Port Wakefield bypass.

He described the funding, under the Commonwealth Government's AusLink2 program, as "the biggest road and rail investment from an Australian government in South Australia ever".

"This is all part of a plan to build a stronger Australian economy, to get more people in work," Mr Costello said.

"If we didn't have a strong economy we wouldn't be able to afford to build the infrastructure we need."

Mr Costello said $80m to fund upgrades of the Dukes Highway, running between Adelaide and Melbourne, and $70m for the Sturt Highway, running from Adelaide's north to the north of state, were other highlights of the package.

[Tfer]

yep, you're 100% correct..

rises all the way to brisbane :p

Hmmmm :rolleyes:


i was waiting for one of the Qld clowns to say something about them being above us all... but this is heaps funnier :D

Hmmmm not worth it really :rolleyes:


what about freaking qld?

We have the worst infrastructure in the country!! We are about to get level 6 water restrictions!! How about VIC lend us that 1 billion for some water, hey we will even go halfs so we can put some water in the murray!!!!

Labor state government..... but was a coalition prior that set the wheels in reverse :eek: