A series of road safety programs will receive a huge funding boost, as announced in the 2024-25 Federal Budget handed down last night.
Programs to benefit from additional funding are the Roads to Recovery Program, Black Spot Program, and the new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program which merges the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity program with the Bridges Renewal Program.
Set to receive the biggest piece of the pie is the Roads to Recovery Program, which supports the construction and maintenance of the nation’s local road infrastructure assets.
Funding for the Roads to Recovery Program, which is available to all local government areas in Australia, will progressively rise from $500 million to $1 billion per year.
Roads to Recovery operates on a five-year funding period. In the current funding period, from 2019-20 to 2023-24, $2.6 billion was made available nationally. Since the start of this funding period, recipients have delivered repairs and upgrades to almost 12,000 road sites.
From July 1, 2024, a new five-year funding period will commence. The available funding for the Roads to Recovery Program will increase until $1 billion is available per year under this ongoing program.
While funding for the Black Spot Program will increase from $110 million to $150 million per year. This initiative focuses on safety improvements to road locations where there has been a high incidence of crashes.
For the Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program, the Federal Government has committed at least $200 million each year.
“To ease the administrative burden on applicants, we have merged the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program into a new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program,” said a government media statement.
In a bid to improve driver education around safety, $10.8 million will go towards a one-year National Road Safety Education and awareness campaign, and $21.2 million over six years to improve the reporting of national road safety data via the National Road Safety Data Hub.
“This Data Hub will ensure vital and more harmonised road-safety data can be used effectively by everyone, including decision makers in all states and territories,” a statement said.
In addition, $100 million will be invested into a new Active Transport Fund open to states and territories, funding new and upgraded bicycle and walking paths.