Road and rail win in Vic. budget
Some big works will be announced in today’s Victorian state budget.
Regional public transport will be a winner, with the Government set to spend $1.45 billion on regional rail upgrades across the state, including a $435 million boost to the Gippsland service.
The budget also sets out $193 million over four years to fund all-night public transport in Melbourne on weekends, while $67 million will go to safety upgrades for the metropolitan train network.
An additional $10 million will be invested in planning studies for a rail link to Melbourne Airport.
There is road money too, $100 million allocated for planning and early work on the North-East Link, linking the Eastern Freeway with the ring road at Greensborough.
The Government is promising to build to Mordialloc Bypass linking the end of the Mornington Peninsula Freeway to the Dingley Bypass as well, with work on the $300 million project forecast to start in 2019.
Noise walls on the Monash, Frankston, Eastern and South Gippsland Freeways will be replaced at a cost of $7.7 million.
The Andrews Government has also outline a $44 million project to add more beds at the Thomas Embling forensic mental health hospital.
The budget will also over $60 million to upgrade the emergency department at the Monash Medical Centre, a total of $44.4 million in upgrades to six Victorian special schools, and funding for the redevelopment of Footscray Hospital.