Roads hammered: truck traffic doubles and triples on many regional roads

Regional Victorian roads are being hammered by truck traffic and drivers are battling crumbling, dangerous roads that put lives at risk.

Regional and city roads have been swamped by a massive wave of freight flooding into the Port of Melbourne, as the rail freight load slumps.

Regional Victorian roads are being hammered by a massive surge in truck traffic that is pouring in and out Melbourne and Geelong.

Department of Transport data shows the number of kilometres trucks travelled on Victoria’s rural roads has risen by 600 million kms since 2009, to reach 2.8 billion km in 2020.

At the same time container movements through the Port of Melbourne have risen from 1.9 million twenty-foot equivalent containers in 2009 to 2.9m in 2020-21.

An investigation by The Weekly Times found that truck traffic on some regional arterial roads and highways has doubled or tripled over the 12 years — as container and bulk freight from all corners of the state, Riverina and southeast South Australia pour into the ports of Melbourne, Portland and Geelong.

Average daily truck traffic in one direction.

While both sides of politics argue about regional road spending, drivers say they are living with the day-to-day reality of cracked and crumbling roads, potholes, narrow lanes and a lack of shouldering that leaves them no margin for error when navigating the network.

In northwest Victoria, grain growers and freight companies claim the Sunraysia Hwy is falling apart. VicRoads data shows northbound traffic has tripled from 40 trucks a day in 2009 to 119 in 2020 — an increase of almost 60,000 trips a year in both directions.

FIND OUT HOW MUCH TRAFFIC YOUR ROADS CARRIED IN 2020 HERE

“We’re seeing more road damage, especially the shoulders, where trucks are moving over to let other vehicles through,” Quambatook farmer and Grain Growers Limited chairman Brett Hosking said.

“We’re seeing money spent on barriers and road signs, but that doesn’t help us.”

Watson’s Bulk Logistics owner Joel Watson said he was sick of stopgap repairs being made to roads, rather than work being undertaken to rebuild them.

“Ten years ago after the floods of 2011 everyone was hopping mad because the roads were terrible,” Mr Watson said. “Ten years on they’re still shit.”

In southwest Victoria, northbound truck traffic on the Henty Highway, near Heywood, has grown from 153 a day to 371 over the 12 years to 2020.

An extra 351 trucks a day are rumbling north across the Wimmera River’s Stawell Rd Bridge into the heart of Horsham, lifting the daily load to 1654 – in just one direction.

Even some of the west’s back roads are seeing a major lift in truck numbers, with westbound traffic on the Apsley-Natimuk Rd, rising from just 16 trucks a day to 60 in recent years.

The tech-driven push to find the shortest route has also pushed up the number of passenger vehicles sharing some of the state’s most dangerous roads with trucks.

East-bound truck and passenger vehicle traffic on the notorious Cobden-Stonyford Road, which google directs drivers onto as a shortcut between Warrnambool and Melbourne, has jumped from 541 to 755 in the 12 years to 2020.

Assuming an equivalent number of vehicles are travelling west, the annual flow of traffic has risen by about 156,000 to reach more than half a million vehicles on this narrow road that has claimed four lives in six years.

Trucks looking for alternate routes to Victoria’s north and Riverina are pushing up the freight load on the Northern Hwy, where an extra 108 trucks a day are hitting the bitumen heading north out of Kilmore.

Other parts of the state have seen similar growth, with westbound traffic on the South Gippsland Hwy, between Leongatha and Korrumburra, rising from 458 trucks a day in 2009 to 662 in 2020.

Even smaller roads in the North East have seen truck traffic lift, with the Beechworth-Chiltern Rd northbound flow going from just 16 trucks a day to 53.

VicRoads data shows it’s a similar story on many of other regional roads, signalling the need for greater investment in upgrades and to get more freight onto rail.

SEE HOW MUCH TRAFFIC YOUR ROADS CARRIED FROM 2009 TO 2020 HERE

But the Victorian Government has already abandoned delivering the full standardisation and upgrade of Murray Basin Rail Project, using state and federal funding.

The project’s cost has already blown out from $440m to $794.4m, leading Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan to leave the project half built based on a revised business case she refuses to release.

The Department of Transport claims it is “investing more than ever before in maintaining and upgrading the freight rail network” and “continuing to deliver an unprecedented program of road upgrades and maintenance that is making thousands of kilometres of Victorian roads safer and more reliable for freight operators.”.

But Rail Freight Alliance chief executive Reid Mather said rail capacity had actually declined, citing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest stevedoring report, which showed rail carried just 6.1 per cent of the freight load into the Port of Melbourne in 2020-21, compared to 13.9 per cent in 2013-14.

In contrast Adelaide has increased the proportion of freight carried into its port by rail from 4.1 per cent to 20.3 per cent over the same period, while Sydney’s rail freight load has increased from 12 per cent to 15.5 per cent.

Opposition Roads spokeswoman Louise Staley said the former Coalition Government first committed to funding a Port of Melbourne Port Rail Shuttle Network in 2014 but work on the project only began last month.