Victoria has overtaken Queensland as the big state with the fastest-growing total of construction industry wrecks, highlighting the precariousness of a sector in which contractor Roberts Co shut its Victorian doors and John Holland swung to a $55.5 million loss from two infrastructure projects.

New figures this week from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show the pace of construction insolvency growth in the southern state overtook Queensland in December. In the months since, it has kept up the fastest pace of growth of the three largest states.