State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell has again raised the issue of the Shepparton bypass in state parliament, even though the Federal Government has withdrawn any interest in the project.
During the adjournment debate on Tuesday, November 28, Ms Lovell took aim at state and federal Labor for their “neglect” of the proposed bypass, which the Federal Government recently said it would not fund.
Ms Lovell said the bypass had been three decades in the planning and on the city’s infrastructure priority list for many of those years.
“The bypass has been the priority project for the Greater Shepparton community for many years, but unfortunately, both state and federal Labor governments continue to ignore the safety of our community,” she said.
“The danger of not having a second river crossing was highlighted during the (2022) floods and it is now time the state government got on with the job of prioritising the funding and building of the Shepparton bypass.”
Ms Lovell said without a commitment to build the bypass, Greater Shepparton could expect to be divided whenever the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway was closed, and trucks using the Midland Hwy would continue to drive through the central business districts of both Shepparton and Mooroopna.
She said as the number and size of vehicles in the CBDs steadily increased over the coming years, the danger for both pedestrians and other road users would too.