Roads in the Great Southern will undergo upgrades later this year as part of the $1 billion Regional Road Safety Program (RRSP).
New projects will see more than 114 kilometres of roads upgraded with safety treatments including sealed shoulders or audible edge lines.
Since the RRSP was established in 2020, more than 600km of roads in the Great Southern has received these safety upgrades, including large sections of Albany Highway, Muir Highway, Great Southern Highway, South Western Highway, South Coast Highway and Chester Pass Road.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the installation of these low-cost safety treatments was helping reduce the number of single vehicle run-off road crashes, one of the leading causes of death and serious injury on regional roads.
She said about $21 million is being invested to deliver the four new projects including the installation of sealed shoulders and audible edge lines along 48km on Muir Highway, 34km of Albany Highway, 28km of Albany Lake Grace Road and 4km of audible edge lines on the Donnybrook Kojonup Road.
"The Regional Road Safety Program is a landmark initiative that is delivering critical safety upgrades to the State's regional road network, especially in the Great Southern region," Ms Saffioti said.
"We know single vehicle run off road crashes are one of the leading causes of deaths on regional roads in Western Australia and this program is helping to combat this issue.
"We are all susceptible to lapses in concentration, but by installing low-cost safety treatments like audible edge lines and sealed shoulders we're providing drivers with additional safety nets in the unlikely event if they veer off the road.
"We saw last year a significant decline in the number of people killed on regional roads, which is a really strong indicator the investment we are making is having a real impact."
WA Road Safety Minister David Michael said these projects were important given that regional road users are historically overrepresented in our crash statistics.
"There is no question that these improvements to our regional roads are effective," Mr Michael said.
"Research by the Curtin-Monash Accident Research Centre found sealing of road shoulders and installation of audible edge lines, or rumble strips, were highly effective overall, significantly reducing crash rates by 58 per cent and casualty crashes by 79 per cent.
"This is a great example of this government taking an evidenced-based approach to making our roads safer."
The Regional Road Safety Program is jointly funded by the State and Commonwealth Governments.
Numbers boosted
Ms Saffioti also joined Premier Roger Cook in announcing an increase of more than 100 workers joining Main Roads as part of the transition of road maintenance functions back into government.
They announced the WA Labor government has been progressively moving road maintenance functions back to Main Roads since late 2022 after road maintenance functions were outsourced by the Liberal-National government in the 1990s.
A total of 39 road maintenance staff will be joining Main Roads in the Great Southern, with 61 being employed in the South West.
A new Main Roads office is also being established in Manjimup and will accommodate 20 new staff to assist with increased road network management responsibilities.
The addition of 100 staff across the Great Southern and South West takes the total number of staff joining Main Roads since the start of the transition to more than 350.
