An auditor-general's report into the program revealed the flexible safety barriers, installed along 20 of Victoria's highest risk rural roads including the Midland Hwy between Shepparton and Stanhope, were "not as cost effective" as VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission had intended.
The report also said the program would not achieve its expected benefits despite spending at least 22 per cent more money than originally budgeted.
“The half a billion that has been thrown at this program would have gone a very long way to improving deteriorating country roads,” State Member for Euroa Steph Ryan said.
“Not only can the government not be sure whether it will achieve its intended benefits, but the report also finds that it doesn’t know whether the rollout of these barriers delivered the best value for the money spent."
In 2016, the TAC funded a Towards Zero Strategy with funding allocated to VicRoads to deliver the installation of road safety infrastructure — including flexible barriers, wide centre lines and rumble strips — to high risk rural roads.
The strategy suggested flexible barriers could reduce fatalities and serious injuries from run-off-road and head-on serious casualty crashes by up to 85 per cent.
The auditor-general's report showed, however, that the safety measures installed so far had only reduced the risks on treated sections of road by 46.5 per cent.
“Additionally (VicRoads) has failed to properly maintain and monitor the barriers installed, which increases the risk that they will not perform as intended,” the report stated.
“VicRoads has not kept adequate records about the project ... this will impede its ability to fully evaluate the program's outcomes and hold itself accountable to the community for the effectiveness of its investment.”
Damien Codognotto from The Motorcycle Riders Association road safety committee said the report had sent "alarm bells ringing".
He claimed there was no data to support how many people had been seriously injured or killed at wire rope barrier sites across the state, saying the claims of "massive reductions" in these types of collisions was not accurate.
Despite this, Regional Roads Victoria chief regional roads officer Paul Northey said the number of people who had died or were seriously injured from head-on or run-off-road crashes had been reduced by two-thirds on the roads treated with flexible safety barriers.
In 2019, for the first time in 10 years, no lives were lost on the Hume Fwy despite the flexible barriers being hit more than 230 times.
“So often we hear stories from people whose lives have been saved by flexible safety barriers. There is no price we can put on these lives being saved,” Mr Northey said.
“We are encouraged by the crash data that support these stories — fewer people are dying and being seriously injured on the roads where we’ve installed flexible barriers.”
RoadSafe Goulburn Valley chair Des Callaghan said the barriers were a positive addition to addressing road trauma along high risk roads across the state.
While he acknowledged the barriers could pose an issue for drivers needing to pull over or stop in an emergency lane, he said he did believe they were preventing serious collisions.
“When I've questioned the data at various RoadSafe meetings I have had, which VicRoads and police attended, they have said the barriers are saving lives,” Mr Callaghan said.
“I don't know how far the original budget was supposed to stretch — $100 million is a lot of money, however they started the project so why not finish it.”
The Department of Transport has confirmed the outcome of a five-year evaluation due to start next year will show the full benefits of flexible safety barriers.
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