$675m pothole blitz to fix Victoria’s crumbling roads

A major nine-month maintenance program to patch potholes and repair Victoria’s crumbling roads will soon begin, with the busiest roads set for a massive overhaul.

The blitz will ensure potholes are filled across Victoria’s crumbling road network.

Crumbling regional roads will be the target of a new $675m maintenance blitz as the Allan government vows to fix the state’s road network.

A major nine-month maintenance program to patch potholes and rebuild, repair, and resurface roads will be launched on Monday with thousands of projects on the agenda.

They include fixing some of the state’s busiest roads including the Hume Freeway, the Princes Highway, Surf Coast Highway, the Western Highway, and the Goulburn Valley Highway.

Other roads set to be targeted include Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Rd, Terang-Mortlake Rd, Mornington-Flinders Rd, Horsham-Kalkee Rd and Tylden-Woodend Rd.

In total the government has committed $964m to the blitz with about 70 per cent — or $675m — of that funding to be directed to regional Victoria.

About 70 per cent of the money will be directed to roads in regional Victoria.

Roads minister, Melissa Horne, said the blitz would also address issues with bridges, traffic lights, signage and road infrastructure.

“We’re investing nearly a billion dollars to rebuild and repair the roads that Victorians depend on every single day — from the highways connecting our major centres to the local roads that keep our communities moving,” she said.

“Crews will be out delivering $2.6m of works every day for a year – with around 70 per cent of all funding going towards our regional roads.

“The last Liberal National Government cut roads maintenance funding and jobs – we’re getting on and delivering the biggest single-year investment in road maintenance in Victoria’s history.”

The Allan Government has persistently blamed major flooding from October 2022 for worsening conditions on Victoria’s roads, with latest data showing road crews are filling almost 700 potholes a day across the network.

The government said crews were filling almost 700 potholes a day across the network. Picture: Peter Ristevski

At the same time, it has slashed funding to resurface roads to just $37.6m this year, down from $201.4m last year and well below an $82m average between 2018 and 2022.

It has seen the percentage of roads being resurfaced reduced by up to two thirds, while hundreds of roads have been added to the state’s “roads in poor condition register”.

Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, has repeatedly urged the government to address the worsening roads crisis.

“Labor cut $88m from its Road Safety Fund last year and will oversee a further reduction of 27 per cent this financial year, despite a rise in the road toll in recent years,” he said.

“Labor can’t manage money and Victorians are paying the price through roads that are less safe and in worse condition.

“Successive years of budget cuts have left our roads in a dire state and now Labor is turning its back on important safety upgrades.”

Poor road conditions overtook dangerous driver behaviour as the biggest concern on Victoria’s network this year.

Mr O’Brien said he was concerned by evidence to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee that the government was not forecasting to install any new roadside barriers or tactile line-marking this year.

He said the Department of Transport and Planning had also confirmed that as at June, 23.9km of roadside barrier was damaged in 2023-24, but not repaired.

Poor road conditions overtook dangerous driver behaviour as the biggest concern on Victoria’s road network this year according to the RACV’s latest My Country Road survey of more than 7000 Victorians.

Of those, 64 per cent said potholes and poor road condition was their biggest road safety concern.

A further 32 per cent listed dangerous behaviours of other drivers as their top concern, while narrow lanes, intersection safety and limited overtaking opportunities were also identified as top road issues.

More than half of all respondents also supported lowering speed limits on our most dangerous roads.

Originally published as $675m pothole blitz to fix Victoria’s crumbling roads