Repair work slashed by 95 per cent on Victoria’s crumbling roads

Maintenance of Victoria’s deteriorating road network has fallen to record lows with repair work slashed by a staggering 95 per cent last financial year, new figures reveal.

Maintenance of Victoria’s crumbling road network has fallen to record lows with repair work slashed by a staggering 95 per cent last financial year, new figures have confirmed.

New government data shows just 422,000 square metres of regional roads were rehabilitated or resurfaced in 2023-24, down from 9 million square metres a year earlier.

It means maintenance works were completed on road areas the size of 21 MCGs last year, compared to 450 MCGs the year prior.

The chronic failure to keep up with the state’s road maintenance program was laid bare in the latest Department of Transport and Planning annual report.

The report also revealed concerning delays in work being completed, with only 39 per cent of metropolitan projects and 69 per cent of regional projects being finished on time.

In the same time, the government slashed its road resurfacing spending to just $37.6m compared to $201.4m the previous year.

Maintenance of Victoria’s crumbling road network has fallen to record lows. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien said Labor’s cuts had taken a massive toll on the state of our roads.

“A 95 per cent reduction in essential maintenance is just going to mean our already bad roads will get worse,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Victorians are already putting up with dodgy roads wherever they drive – regional Victoria, the suburbs and even some of our freeways.

“The government’s own survey last year found 91 per cent of the roads it surveyed were in poor or very poor condition – something all Victorian motorists are well aware of.”

Mr O’Brien said a lack of work in Victoria had forced road crews having to travel thousands of kilometres interstate to secure work.

“It’s astonishing that our own workers are travelling over 2km to far north Queensland when our own roads are so bad,” he said.

“Why aren’t they getting work here to fix our appalling roads?

“Last year even the government’s own road maintenance firm, Sprayline Road Services, had to tender for work in South Australia because there was no work for them in Victoria.”

Repair work was slashed by a staggering 95 per cent last financial year. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A government spokesperson maintained two-year-old flooding events were to blame for much of the damaged road network.

But she said $964m had been committed to maintaining Victoria’s road between now and mid-2025.

“Repeated flooding and above-average rainfall caused unprecedented damage to our roads which meant our maintenance program needed to focus on rebuilding damaged roads last year – simply resurfacing these roads would not have prevented further degradation,” she said.

“We’re now getting on with this work investing nearly a billion dollars this year – the largest single-year investment in Victoria’s history – to rebuild and repair the roads that Victorians depend on, with 70 per cent of that funding going to regional Victoria.

“Crews are now out on the ground delivering our record investment in our roads – nearly double the average spend of $493 million of the previous Liberal National Government.”

Data collected by the RACV shows poor road conditions have now overtaken dangerous driver behaviour as the biggest concern across the state’s road network.

Almost two thirds of Victorian motorists now say potholes and poor road condition are their biggest road safety concern.