The people of Leongatha and South Gippsland have strongly backed a campaign to fix a dangerous and chaotic intersection of the South Gippsland Highway in Leongatha.
The Nationals Member for Gippsland South, Danny O’Brien has tabled a petition in Parliament calling for the State Government to deliver planning and capital funding for the Leongatha Heavy Vehicle Alternative Route stage two in order to fix the disastrous intersection that resulted from stage one.
“It doesn’t take a road engineer to see that the South Gippsland Highway intersection at McCartin, Roughead, Anderson, Long and Hughes Streets is in urgent need of attention,” Mr O’Brien said.
“This intersection, known by locals as ‘Kamikaze Corner’, is a disaster waiting to happen and is only being further complicated by the Great Southern Rail Trail extension through Leongatha.
“I have tabled 503 signatures from the online petition and will be collecting hard copy petitions from around the Leongatha community to table in the coming weeks.”
Mr O’Brien said the petition was important to highlight the need for action on this project by the State Government.
“The South Gippsland Shire has listed the project as one of its priorities for advocacy and we now need to convince the Andrews Labor Government to get on board.
“We need to put this issue on the agenda to ensure that necessary government planning and funding is put towards delivering a solution.
“There are a number of potential solutions but directing through traffic out along Hughes Street and back onto the highway either at Turner Street or further along towards Melbourne seems to have strong merit.
“This intersection in Leongatha is the bane of many drivers and they want it fixed. Last week I had the petition with me during a listening post in Bair Street and everyone who saw it was very quick to add their name to it.
“I’ll continue campaigning with the people of South Gippsland until we fix this issue.”
Sign the petition online here.