Unprecedented road maintenance work to hit Melbourne suburbs over spring

ALMOST a quarter of Melbourne’s roads are not up to standard as authorities launch a blitz to fix our worst suburban potholes.

ALMOST a quarter of Melbourne’s roads are failing to meet anti-cracking standards, as authorities launch an unprecedented blitz to fix our worst suburban potholes.

The Andrews Government and VicRoads are preparing a major rollout of repair works as wet and cold conditions make way for spring weather ideal for laying asphalt.

More than 100,000 potholes have been filled over the past 12 months and 631 arterial roads across suburban Melbourne will be targeted over spring and summer.

OUR STATE ON THE ROAD TO RUIN

SLEEPLESS IN SEDDON

$2.2BN ROAD UPGRADE FOR MELBOURNE

Budget documents show that 77.9 per cent of metropolitan roads lengths met the anticracking standard in the last financial year. The Andrews Government has set a target of boosting this to 84.4 per cent over the next 12 months.

Melbourne has more than 12,300km of roads, with the maintenance of many suburban streets handled by local governments.

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said VicRoads was doing more roadwork this year than it had done in decades.

“The $4 billion suburban roads upgrade is fixing 22 of our most important arterial roads — adding new lanes, upgrading intersections and improving safety,” he said. “Since coming to office, we’ve doubled spending on road maintenance and fixed thousands of roads across Victoria.”

Authorities will launch a major blitz of potholes on Melbourne roads.

Black spots include Golf Links Rd in Langwarrin, which will receive safety upgrades this year, and popular truck routes such as Williamstown Rd in Seddon.

RACV roads and traffic manager Dave Jones said the state was playing catch-up after years of insufficient funding. “The numbers in the budget papers hide the extent of the problem,” he said.

“In metropolitan Melbourne, in 2017 the Victorian Auditor-General found 59 per cent of roads in the north and west were in poor or very poor condition. In east and southeast Melbourne, that figure was 51 per cent.”

He added: “Along with increased funding to restore the network, a new strategy is needed that will see the state’s road network better managed and more accountability for the performance of the contractors.”

VicRoads director of asset services Catherine Dear said it carried out maintenance around the clock.

“Over the past 12 months, we fixed more than 13 million square metres of roads and 100,000 potholes across the state — but we know we still have a long way to go,” she said. “This year we’ll be repairing, resurfacing and rebuilding more than 1000km of roads across regional Victoria and 631 arterial roads across suburban Melbourne.”

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