RACT says governments dragging heels on traffic fixes

The RACT has released a report card on much-needed road upgrades, and governments have scored low marks. SEE THE SCOREBOARD

GOVERNMENTS talked big about upgrading road infrastructure but were slow in delivering major projects, the RACT says.

The motoring organisation has developed a scorecard for the delivery of priority road projects.

SEE THE SCORECARD HERE

Of the 24 identified, 14 were either unfunded or only in preliminary planning stages.

The RACT is calling on the state and federal governments to lift their game.

RACT Executive General Manager Membership and Community Stacey Pennicott said there were many examples of projects which should be high priorities, but were taking too long to deliver.

RACT Executive General Manager Membership and Community Stacey Pennicott. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

“We all know the Bridgewater Bridge is still just in planning stage, despite the fact that it’s been talked about for many years,” she said.

“We’re also seeing planning around the south-east corridor in Hobart, but we actually haven’t got the timelines for improvement on that.

“And probably our key concern still remains the traffic congestion for Hobart.

“We’re getting towards one year from when RACT released our own vision for that and we had a number of priorities and apart from seeing some clearways and things improved, we actually haven’t seen progress towards the next step to improve that traffic congestion.”

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Among the projects the RACT identified as needing a hurry-up were long-term traffic congestion relieving measures for Hobart, the Wielangta Rd connection between the East Coast and Tasman Peninsula, funding for safety upgrades on the East Tamar Highway and funding for a flyover at the Mowbray Connector on East Tamar Highway.