NORTHERN Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has announced a new $10 million road safety upgrade project on the New England Highway between Armidale and Uralla.
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Mr Marshall said the new program, funded in Tuesday’s NSW Budget, would see $5 million spent on works on the busy 25-kilometre stretch of highway between Armidale and Uralla and another $5 million to improve highway conditions south of Uralla.
“This is great news for a region and comes on the back of an additional $60 million in Tuesday’s budget to upgrade roads right across the Northern Tablelands,” Mr Marshall said.
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“These important works along the busiest section of the New England Highway will include additional road shoulder sealing, to make the highway wider in sections, intersection improvements, wider centre lines and audio-tactile line marking,” Mr Marshall said.
He said the installation of audio-tactile line marking is new for our region and would hopefully alert motorists when they are drifting into the wrong lane.
“Widening the centre lines, creating a larger space between oncoming lanes of traffic has been implemented along the Newell Highway for a number of years and has proven to dramatically improve safety and reduce head on collisions,” he said.
“More than $6 million has been spent on the highway between Armidale and Uralla over the past three years and this $10 million injection along one of the busiest stretches of the New England over the next 12 months is another major step forward to improve the safety of local motorists.”
Mr Marshall said the newest works were critical to ensuring the major highway continues to be a safe transport corridor for the freight industry and tourists.
“Anyone who travels that road knows exactly how important these upgrades are,” he said. “We’re looking to provide a stronger, longer lasting and safer road and over the next few months the RMS will finalise the exact location of where that new work will be carried out.”
The latest works are part of an ongoing road safety program over a 30-kilometre stretch of the highway.
They will follow $1.9 million in similar major works completed in the past 18 months with upgrades between Platform Road and Kia-Ora Road, south of Armidale, including a new left turning lane from the highway onto Platform Road, and road reconstruction work at the Arding Road intersection.
