Transport Minister Rita Saffioti today announced the speed limit on South Western Highway, between Hynes Road and Giorgi Road in Picton East, will be lowered from 100km/h hour to 80km/h.
The speed limit change follows a Safe System and Speed Zone Review of this section of road, which investigated safety performance aspects including the road structure, previous crash history and driver behaviour.
The current 80km/h speed zone on South Western Highway west of Giorgi Road will now be lowered to 70km/h, to link in with the reduced speed limit between Hynes Road and Giorgi Road.
Approximately 6,000 vehicles per day use the three-kilometre section of road, which has seen 29 crashes reported over the past five years, 14 of which required medical or hospital treatment. This year two fatalities have also been reported in the vicinity.
In addition to the reduced speed limit, Main Roads is undertaking a number of low-cost treatments on this section of road to improve safety including:
- vegetation clearing to improve sight lines;
- installation of advance street name signs to improve visibility of approaching intersections;
- clearing to ensure existing regulatory signs are visible to approaching drivers;
- removal of advertising signs and other obstructions to improve sight distance and road user safety;
- sweeping loose aggregate from traffic lanes, where required; and
- a review of the line-marking on this section of Highway.
As stated by Transport Minister Rita Saffioti:
“The reduced speed limit along this section of South West Highway is an outcome the local community have been campaigning for.
“Thank you to the Member for Collie-Preston and the Member for Murray-Wellington for bringing this to my attention, along with the local community members who wrote to my office.
“Our Government is committed to improving safety on regional roads, which is why we have allocated more than $2.5 billion in the recent State Budget to upgrade regional roads all across Western Australia.”
