The federal government committed $360 million to the complete the project between Ararat and Stawell.

Wannon MP Dan Tehan said the upgrade is crucial with the amount of traffic - particularly freight traffic to South Australia - on the stretch of road continually increasing.

"More than 6000 vehicles travel the Western Highway west of Ballarat each day, including 1500 trucks - and the expected doubling of those traffic figures by 2025 makes the completion of the upgrade absolutely vital," Mr Tehan said.

The highway duplication plan between Ballarat and Stawell has been in place for a number of years, with significant delays of the duplication between Buangor and Ararat slowing the project's progress.

Activists have established camps at multiple sites along the highway at Buangor protesting the duplication, arguing the cultural significance to the aboriginal community should prevent the duplication from moving through where it is proposed to do so.

Ararat Rural City Council mayor Peter Beales said he hopes that stretch of road has an easier building process than the one between Buangor and Ararat.

READ MORE: 2016 - Erwin pushes for duplication

"The Western Highway is our prime target at the present moment, so any money in there is excellent," he said.

"I hope there won't be any delays in that section - that would be a concern to us if the money is sitting there and nothing happens."

Northern Grampians Shire mayor Kevin Erwin said the duplication has been a long time coming.

"It has been a long hard haul, and it hasn't gone too far in last few years. The project was supposed to be completed in 2016 with original plans from 1998 so any money to get it back on track we are grateful for," he said.

"It will certainly have a big impact on safety. The road hasn't had the best safety record over the last few years with quite a few deaths between Stawell and Ararat."

Mallee Liberal candidate Serge Petrovich said duplication between Ballarat and Ararat is expected to be complete by mid-2020.

"This new commitment builds on the government's existing commitment of $499.4 million to the staged duplication and also complements investments across the length of the Western Highway corridor, including $50 million towards pre-construction works for future bypasses of Beaufort and Ararat to ensure this important corridor is able to support the growing freight task and communities that rely on it every day," he said.

READ MORE: Funding for highway duplication

The federal and Victorian state governments will work together on finalising joint funding arrangements and a delivery timeframe for the section between Ararat and Stawell.

The project funding is expected to be split 80 per cent by the federal government and 20 per cent by the state.

It will also support about 600 jobs during the construction phase.

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