#FixVicRoads: I took a trip to see how bad Victoria’s roads really are. Here’s what I found

At first, the potholes were small. Then we took a detour, and suddenly I was white-knuckling the grab handle, praying ankle-deep corrugations didn’t swallow our tyre. FOLLOW THE ROAD TRIP

At first, the potholes were small – almost polite.

Just little divots here and there, cracks up the shoulders. Nothing Victorians aren’t used to.

I would’ve considered these ‘good’ roads.

Doesn’t that tell you something about how accustomed we’ve become to these second-rate conditions?

Then we took a detour, and suddenly I was white-knuckling the grab handle, praying ankle-deep corrugations didn’t swallow up our tyre.

My colleague Mark Stewart and I were buckled in for a five-day trip to get a look for ourselves at the state’s roads.

It was smooth sailing for an entire day through Ballarat, Daylesford and up to Premier Jacinta Allan’s seat of Bendigo.

The more kilometres we wracked up, the clearer it became we were in the shadow of a federal election.

But then in the following days, the roads practically fell apart beneath us.

I held my breath as cars narrowly avoided oncoming traffic after swerving into the right lane to avoid huge potholes in Tallarook.

A torn-apart road in Congupna. Picture: Mark Stewart

Drivers pulled over and offered help while we were filming a torn apart road in Congupna, thinking we’d done our tyre. It was so casual, like that happened regularly.

I was appalled that roads in 40km/h school zones had literally been reduced to gravel.

Then in metro Melbourne, we watched as cars bounced through huge craters in Diamond Creek, and swerved across tram tracks to avoid divots in Preston.

P-platers told me they were taking the long way home in Mount Martha to avoid potholes at night.

Wherever we went, every driver I spoke with said the same thing: Roads aren’t being fixed properly, and it’s time something is done about it.

I’ve lived in regional Victoria for the better part of a decade. I know how this story goes.

Potholes in my hometown have been around for so long, they’re practically family members. They claim tyres and cause accidents. We report them, and when no one comes, we plant trees in them. Crews eventually shovel them with tar — forget about actually finding out why they’re appearing in the first place — and so within weeks our pothole opens back up for round 32.

Hearing the Allan government boast its $967m “better roads blitz” made me grind my teeth more than the potholes themselves.

They say the program is the biggest single-year investment in road maintenance — a shameful manipulation ploy to distract from the real data.

“We are rebuilding and resurfacing our most damaged roads and repairing potholes across our network– all to keep our road users moving safely and smoothly on metro and regional roads,” a spokesperson told me.

By the numbers, the project promises just 25 per cent of the road repairs delivered pre-pandemic.

This year, Victorians will see resurfacing and pothole plugs to 3.6 million sq m of road. Wind the clock back, maintenance crews were delivering an average of 15.2 million sq m every financial year between 2017 and 2021.

But somehow, this year’s works will cost us about $180 million more.

Herald Sun reporter Grace Frost travelled some the state’s worst roads with colleague Mark Stewart. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

This discrepancy can’t be ignored.

At best, it’s appalling financial mismangament.

At worst, a sinister cover-up by a state crippled in debt.

I took this trip to find the state’s worst roads, but instead, I found communities sick and tired of asking the same question over and over again.

Where has our money really gone?

Join the Herald Sun’s Fix Victorian Roads movement by using the hashtag #FixVicRoads on social media.

Originally published as #FixVicRoads: I took a trip to see how bad Victoria’s roads really are. Here’s what I found