The Shire of Coorow is awaiting funding for road upgrades to what is says is a dangerous stretch of road through the Leeman townsite.
The eight kilometre section on Indian Ocean Road provides five opportunities to turn off into the town, however being extremely narrow and with no slip lanes, Coorow Shire president Guy Sims said many drivers overtook on double lines.
"The speed limit does reduce to 80 (kilometres per hour) but hardly anybody drops their speed down to that," Mr Sims said.
"You've got a situation where there's near-misses every day, with cars overtaking on double white lines, cars overtaking trucks turning right on the right hand side, that's the kind of thing that has been going on."
The Shire proposed reducing the speed limit further, to 70km/h, however this was rejected by Main Roads at the start of February.
"The reason being design of the road is such that if you reduce the speed limit it actually won't have any real effect, sure you can police it, the reality will be that it won't change driver behaviour," Mr Sims said.
Since then Main Roads met with Shire officials to discuss redesigning the road, which includes widening it and adding central slip lanes.
"In conjunction with those slip lanes, there is a slight chicane effect which combined with a different style of central road markings lends itself to a reduction in speed," Mr Sims said.
"Not only will you have a vastly improved, safer road, you can actually sensibly reduce the speed limit."
Main Roads estimates the project will cost $10 million to complete, but didn't offer funding for the plans.
Mr Sims said for safety concerns he didn't want the plans to be delayed any longer.
"It's an urgent safety matter, there are near-misses every day and that's not an exaggeration," he said.
"It makes no sense to leave it any longer than absolutely necessary."
Last year, a section of Indian Ocean Drive between Jurien Bay to south of Leeman was upgraded by the State government in a project worth $55m.
This year, another section of road between north of Leeman to Dongara is set to be upgraded, will start in April and finish in December.
"Up until now, there was no plan to upgrade the section through Leeman," Mr Sims said.
"So you end up with a very good road on each side and a very poor road in one of the most dangerous spots going through the town of Leeman.
"At the end of the day, it's not a matter of if that section of Indian Ocean Drive is going to be upgraded, it's a matter of when.
"We realise the government is trying to manage its finances in a responsible manner but this is an urgent upgrade."
Mr Sims said he had spoken to Agricultural Region MLC Sandra Carr on three occasions to prompt the State government to fund the upgrades.
A spokesperson from Main Roads said funding decisions on any new infrastructure projects were made through regular budget processes.
He said in five years up until December 31, 2022, there were five reported crashes on the 16km section of road between The Lakes Road in Green Head, and Illyarrie Street, north of Leeman, with only one requiring medical attention.
A State government spokesperson said $80m had been allocated since 2020 to improve Indian Ocean Drive and that funding decisions didn't happen outside of the budget process.
Perri Polson
Perri is an agriculture journalist with Farm Weekly. Born in regional Victoria, Perri developed a love of regional and rural news at a young age, and is now passionate about advocating for the agricultural industry. Her interests include science, agronomy, livestock and food production.
Perri is an agriculture journalist with Farm Weekly. Born in regional Victoria, Perri developed a love of regional and rural news at a young age, and is now passionate about advocating for the agricultural industry. Her interests include science, agronomy, livestock and food production.
