2025/26 Safe Local Roads and Streets Program

The Victorian Government has committed to the vision of no lives lost or serious injuries on our roads by 2050 but we all have a part to play in achieving these targets.

What's the problem?

Currently, local governments such as Northern Grampians own 87% of Victoria’s road network, with 40% of serious injury claims and 41% of TAC claims of life costs occurring as a result of crashes on these roads.

It has been recognised that it isn’t always easy for local government authorities like us to access appropriate resources to plan or deliver the safety improvements needed to reduce road trauma on local roads. Every local council across Victoria has varying capability, capacity and barriers to improve road safety outcomes with our shire facing the burden of maintaining an extensive asset network with limited funding opportunities. 

What's the solution?

The Safe Local Roads and Streets Program is a $210 million dollar program that runs to June 2027 and is designed to integrate local government priorities with a Safe System Approach. It has been developed by the Department of Transport and Planning in partnership with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and aims to build local governments’ capacities to plan, fund and deliver road safety improvements on local roads and provide a contribution to reducing road trauma for all Victorians.

A Safe System Approach focuses on proactive safety measures that aim to prevent crashes and serious injury through safe road designs rather than using current crash data and modifying road designs after people have faced serious injury or loss of life. The aim is to simply prevent the incident from occurring in the first place. 

You can read more about the program and council's commitment to ensuring our local roads and streets are safe here or review the FAQs at the bottom of this page.

What has council received?

Council received confirmation in August 2025 that we were successful in obtaining $2 million via a State Government grant process to deliver road safety projects in Stawell and St Arnaud. 

What are we delivering?

You can read more about the projects scheduled for delivery over the coming months via the tabs below. 

Stawell projects

The following three projects were approved for delivery by council in July 2025 via the funding awarded through the State Government's grant process:

  • Barnes Street, Clifton Avenue and Frayne Street intersection; and
  • Ligar and Lamont Street intersection; and
  • Ligar and Franklin Street intersection. 

A fourth project involving the intersection of Ligar Street and Houston Street was also put forward for consideration in council's original funding application, however was subsequently placed on hold due to insufficient funds being awarded. The decision to prioritise the other locations along Ligar Street was based on road safety analysis and incident prediction data, however following community feedback received during September 2025, council is reassessing whether the Ligar and Houston Street intersection poses more of a considerable community risk. If so, this project could be reprioritised and alternative one placed on hold. 

Council is investigating several lines of enquiry regarding the Ligar Street locations and will advise the community if the project direction above changes following appropriate consultation with the State Government's funding representatives.

Project | Barnes Street, Clifton Avenue and Frayne Street intersection

Status: Confirmed and in progress.  

Treatment: Roundabout and raised priority crossing.

Timeline: Works began at the site in early September 2025 and are predicted to conclude by May 2026.

Contact: Jason Lewis, Senior Project Officer. You can him by calling (03) 5358 8700 or by emailing jason.lewis@ngshire.vic.gov.au.

Barnes St Design.png

Project | Ligar and Lamont Street intersection

Status: Pending. 

Treatment: Roundabout.

Timeline: Works will be scheduled once council has determined which of the two potential sites along Ligar Street are most suitable for immediate delivery with the funding that has been provided. All projects must be delivered by May 2026 in line with the relevant funding requirements.

Contact: Ben Higgins, Infrastructure Engineer. You can him by calling (03) 5358 8700 or by emailing ben.higgins@ngshire.vic.gov.au.

Ligar and Lamont.png

 

Project | Ligar and Franklin Street intersection 

Status: Pending. 

Treatment: Roundabout.

Timeline: Works will be scheduled once council has determined which of the two potential sites along Ligar Street are most suitable for immediate delivery with the funding that has been provided. All projects must be delivered by May 2026 in line with the relevant funding requirements.

Contact: Nic Murphy, Coordinator Engineering Services. You can him by calling (03) 5358 8700 or by emailing nic.murphy@ngshire.vic.gov.au.

Ligar and Franklin Design.png

Project | Ligar and Houston Street intersection

Status: Pending. 

Treatment: Roundabout.

Timeline: Works will be scheduled once council has determined which of the two potential sites along Ligar Street are most suitable for immediate delivery with the funding that has been provided. All projects must be delivered by May 2026 in line with the relevant funding requirements.

Contact: Nic Murphy, Coordinator Engineering Services. You can him by calling (03) 5358 8700 or by emailing nic.murphy@ngshire.vic.gov.au.

Ligar and Houston.png

 

St Arnaud project

There is one project scheduled for completion in St Arnaud over the coming months.

Project | Millett Street and Kings Avenue

Project location: The intersection of Millett Street and Kings Avenue.

Project solution: Raised intersection and raised priority crossings.

Project timeline: Works are scheduled to commence in late 2025 and conclude before May 2026.

Council Contact: Hayden Harvey, Capital Works Delivery Officer. You can him by calling (03) 5358 0511 or by emailing hayden.harvey@ngshire.vic.gov.au.

Millet Design.png

 

Frequently Asked Questions

The program was developed by the Department of Transport and Planning in partnership with the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) to support the development and delivery of road safety infrastructure projects on local roads facilitated by local government.

It's a $200 million program is designed to integrate local governments’ priorities with a Safe System approach and runs from July 2023 to June 2027.

The following video provides an overview of the philosophy behind the Safe System Approach (SSA) and uses a scenario that illustrates opportunities to save lives when SSA is implemented.

In essence, the SSA focuses on proactive safety measures that aim to prevent crashes and serious injury through safe road designs rather than using current crash data and modifying road designs after people have faced serious injury or loss of life.

Each of the projects have varying timelines depending on resource availability and other road work activities scheduled. Please review the timeline for each project by navigating into the respective township above.

Council always endeavours to minimise the disruption to our community, particularly neighbouring properties and/or businesses, when completing any type of road or infrastructure work. The reality is that there will always be a level of moderate disruption during certain stages within the project timeline.

Council will aim to schedule certain activities during appropriate timeframes to lower the potential for disruption to be caused, however there are sometimes circumstances outside of our control that may limit our ability to do so. We will do our utmost to keep any impacted persons across potential disruptions where appropriate. 

Have a question?

If you have any queries about the projects, timelines, potential impacts or proposed solutions outlined on this page, you can call our Customer Service team on (03) 5358 8700 or email ngshire@ngshire.vic.gov.au. There are also direct council contacts for each project with appropriate contact details listed on the page. 

Want to know more?

Simply click on the FAQs at the bottom of this page to find out more about the program and the Safe System Approach methodology that underpins it.

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