Rural roads crisis: Regional Roads Victoria boss Paul Northey says more cash needed

Regional Roads Victoria chief has conceded “cost escalations” are real in fixing roads after major flooding late last year.

The man in charge of Victoria’s 19,000 kilometre regional road network concedes “significant dollars” will be needed to fix badly damaged roads outside Melbourne in coming years.

Regional Roads Victoria’s chief Paul Northey said there was a shortfall in the money available to repair regional roads with major flooding late last year a key contributing factor.

Speaking on 3AW on Thursday, Mr Northey said: “It’s a fair point that we are experiencing some cost escalations, particularly in the last 12 months or so.

“It will be something we will be factoring into our business cases in terms of further programs over coming years.

“There is no doubt we will have to look at what additional dollars we will need in terms of recovery and getting the rebuilding program going after all the damage the floods have caused.

“I’m expecting it will be significant dollars we will be requiring over the next few years.”

Regional Roads Victoria boss Paul Northey near Ballarat in 2018. Picture: ANDY ROGERS

The NSW government announced earlier this month that the bulk of an additional $500 million for road repairs in the state would be spent on regional roads.

Mr Northey said the $780 million annually allocated for road maintenance in Victoria had remained stagnant in recent years, with $470 million of the budgeted amount presently spent on regional roads.

A further $160 million was allocated by the Victorian government late last year to deal with priority flood repair works.

There were 8400 kilometres of regional roads damaged by floods with 3400 kilometres inspected to date using technology called iPAVe that only arrived in Australia less than 12 months ago.

Mr Northey said 120,000 potholes had been fixed and major patching work was becoming a key focus.

He also flagged redesigning some roads to improve drainage that led to major pothole problems.

“Drainage is a key issue and a key preventive measure,” he said.

“We are currently undertaking quite an extensive (amount of) work on drainage and response to the floods.”

Axedale Road near Axedale in central Victoria was in poor condition before Christmas. PICTURE: ZOE PHILLIPS

Mr Northey said some roads could be raised in the future to address drainage problems and cited a section of the Princes Highway that had already undergone such treatment.

“We are experiencing different weather patterns now and we need to take that on board as part of our future programs,” he said.