Northern Grampians council cannot fix half its damaged roads

This region cannot repair 55 per cent of its damaged roads, as it faces the “frequent conundrum” of deciding which roads to maintain and which to forgo.

A major Victorian regional council says it can only afford to repair fewer than half the damaged roads it manages.

Northern Grampians Shire Council mayor Kevin Erwin said the area’s 3369 kilometres of roads are “old, ageing and at increased likelihood of failure” because of competing priorities and cost pressures.

“Council faces frequent conundrum in determining the stretches of road to maintain to the standard our community expect given limitations of our community’s capacity to pay,” Cr Erwin wrote, in a submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into the impact of severe weather events on regional roads.

“The sheer cost of servicing the entire network to meet a consistent standard is implausible because of this constraint.

“The result of this is that council constantly works within the confines of an already unsustainable environment, only being able to fund 45 per cent of the work we know is required.”

The area’s economy is underpinned by agriculture.

Roads damaged in regional Victoria following the 2022 floods. Picture: Supplied

“It is critical that the 143 bridges, the 275 major culverts and the 3000 or so other drainage assets in our road network are able to withstand increasing severity of weather events to remain operational and sustain the economic activity of our community,” Cr Erwin wrote.

The Victorian State Emergency Service said the Northern Grampians Shire Council area has a long history of flooding.

Cr Erwin called for state and federal government agencies to work with councils to enhance road resilience through effective planning and strategic investment in tackling persistent points of network failure.

“Until such time that there is the political intent, enabling policy, financial means and resource capacity, the resilience of the network as a whole will be held to ransom,” he wrote.

Submissions for the inquiry are now closed.

In late January, two of Victoria’s highest-ranking public servants delivered a stunning rebuke of both the funding and maintenance of Victoria’s broken roads system.

Picture: Supplied