Dear Dan: Victoria’s roads need your urgent attention, an open letter

The Weekly Times has written an open letter to Premier Daniel Andrews asking him to spell out his government’s commitment to fixing the state’s roads.

The pressure is building to fix Victoria’s problem-plagued regional road network due to the combined forces of major floods, harvest and upcoming summer holidays.

Large sections of the state’s 150,000 kilometre road network have never been in worse shape with the re-elected Andrews Labor government facing fresh calls to carry out urgent road and bridge rebuilding works.

Victorian Transport Association chief executive Peter Anderson.

Victorian Transport Association chief executive Peter Anderson said it was a “natural disaster that needs attention straight away” with a prediction the $160 million for flooded road repairs set aside by the government will be spent by January.

“This isn’t just a couple of potholes,” he said.

“What we’re talking about is reinstatement of roads and bridges.

“We’ve got slabs of bitumen that are not there any more.

“We’ve got bridges with foundations washed away.

“What we’ve got now is a degradation of our standard of living.”

Speed restriction in place on the Hume Freeway near Wangaratta. Picture: Zoe Phillips

It comes as today The Weekly Times writes an open letter to Premier Daniel Andrews asking him to spell out his government’s commitment to fixing the state’s roads.

It’s estimated flood repair works on Victorian roads will cost up to $1 billion alone.

The roads crisis isn’t confined to Victoria with croppers in southern NSW dealing with longstanding lack of investment in rural roads with harvest finally underway.

Coreen farmers David and Bill Bott are dealing with poor roads in the Federation Shire as harvest ramps up.

“Lots of people are having to pay significantly more in freight to get the product to a receival place because of the sheer distance they have to cover due to the state of the roads,” Coreen’s David Bott said.

“The floods have accelerated what was already a deteriorating asset.”

Last week the federal government announced an inquiry into the implications of severe weather events on the national regional, rural, and remote road network.

Northern Territory MP Luke Gosling, who is chairman of the standing committee on regional development, infrastructure and transport, said the inquiry would look at road engineering and construction standards to withstand natural disasters.

Dear Premier.

Congratulations on your latest election success.

We wish to bring to your urgent attention the horrendous state of roads right across Victoria.

You’ve acknowledged they are an issue and works will take place to fix them.

We’re concerned about the enormity of the problems with

pothole-riddled roads and the danger they pose.

With harvest ramping up and summer holidays on the horizon, with the annual mass migration from metropolitan areas to beachside places and high country, the issue has never been more important.

The Weekly Times invites you to meet stakeholders at a site in regional Victoria which has a road surface in dire need of repair works as soon as possible to outline the government’s commitment to fixing roads in

2023.

The visit could double as an opportunity to highlight the importance to all

Victorians of being extra cautious on our roads this summer.

One lost life on our roads is too many.

Thanks for your consideration.