National Black Spot Program WA + NT

This week the Australian Government announced that Senators Dean Smith and Nigel Scullion have been reappointed as respective Chairs of the Western Australian and Northern Territory Black Spot Consultative Panels.

Each Senator will work with a range of community and road user groups, industry members and government agencies to allocate funding under the Australian Government’s Black Spot Programme toward some of the most dangerous roads in their respective states and territories.
The Black Spot Programme is part of the commitment to reduce crashes on Australian roads.

Road crashes are a major cost to Australians every year. Black Spot projects target those road locations where crashes are occurring. By funding measures such as traffic signals and roundabouts at dangerous locations, the programme reduces the risk of crashes. Programmes of this sort are very effective, saving the community many times the cost of the relatively minor road improvements that are implemented.

The Australian Government has committed $500 million to the Black Spot Programme from 2014-15 to 2018-19, which includes an additional $200 million over two years from 2015-16 to improve road safety across the nation.

Funding is mainly available for the treatment of Black Spot sites with a proven history of crashes. Project proposals of this sort should be able to demonstrate a benefit to cost ratio (BCR) of at least 2. However, to assist Proponents to identify additional projects during the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 a BCR of at least 1 will be accepted for these financial years only.

For discrete sites (for example, an intersection, mid-block or short road section) the minimum eligibility criterion during the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 will be a history of at least two casualty crashes over five years and during the financial years 2014-15, 2017-18 and 2018-19 a history of at least three casualty crashes over five-years.

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