19 March 2009

Anthony Albanese
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
Peter Garrett AM
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

The Rudd Government will invest $150,000 to fix two dangerous black spots on local roads in Kingsford Smith, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese and Member for Kingsford Smith, Peter Garrett, announced today.

Nationally, the funding the Black Spots Program for 2008/09 has been almost tripled from $50 million to $144.7 million, under the Government's $4.7 billion and $42 billion ‘Nation Building’ plans to support jobs, families and businesses during the current global economic downturn. The plans were announced by the Prime Minister in December 2008 and February 2009.

“The Rudd Government has not only honoured its election commitment to increase on-going black spot funding by a massive 33 per cent, up to $59.5 million per year from 2009/10, but is also providing significant additional funding under the Nation Building packages,” Mr Albanese said.

The two projects in Kingsford Smith are:

•    $100,000 to install and realign traffic signals to improve visibility at the intersection of Mill Pond Drive and Botany Road in Botany, and
•    $50,000 to install an extended length of raised median in the right turn bay on Anzac Parade at the intersection with Franklin Street in Malabar.

Mr Albanese and Mr Garrett said that the projects were assessed and recommended by a panel of independent road safety experts.

“The Black Spot program has a proven track record of saving lives. It also returns around $14 for every $1 invested by reducing the number and cost of crashes,” Mr Garrett said.

“This is a great win for the local community and will see important safety improvements on these roads.”

A further $90 million in Black Spot funding was announced in February 2009 under the Government’s $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Package. The additional Black Spots for this funding allocation are currently being considered and will be announced shortly.