Stats show a hole lot of trouble for roads

Routine maintenance crews have filled 470,000 potholes on regional Victorian roads over the past 24 months, as a federal inquiry looks to fix the nation’s crippled bush network.

More than 47,000 potholes were filled on regional Victorian roads over the past two financial years, according to Department of Transport annual reports.

In all, 260,000 potholes were repaired in regional Victoria during 2021-22 and over 210,000 filled in during 2020-21.

The work is tallied at the end of the road maintenance season that falls after the warmer months.

However, that work has been delayed due to 500 workers being seconded to disaster areas as part of a $165 million emergency road repair program.

So far crews have filled in over 116,000 potholes caused by flooding and extreme wet weather that will be additional to planned annual maintenance, and the government expects to at least 200,000 more potholes filled this financial year.

Dr Helen Haines is a member of a federal inquiry looking at the state of the nation’s regional and rural road network. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“This blitz is ensuring that the towns hit hardest by flooding remain connected to vital supplies and services – now we’re also turning our attention towards the first stage of longer-term, larger-scale repairs,” a Department of Transport spokesperson said.

The larger-scale repairs include road rebuilding, asphalt patching, structural repairs and cleaning and repairing roadside drains.

Meanwhile, the condition of regional and rural roads is subject of an inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport.

Federal Member for Indi, Helen Haines, a committee member, said the inquiry was about assessing the roads system, understanding issues around climate and gathering evidence around funding and maintenance and using best practice to build back better.

“The issue is the impact of weather events certainly this year and prior to that, just the extraordinarily poor state of many rural, state and federal roads. There is some significant damage at the moment,” Dr Haines said.

“We want to get some answers from anyone who makes a submission, particularly from local government, around the challenges they are facing right now to maintain the vast road network across Australia.

“We can’t just keep patching and filling holes, without looking at structural issues. I want to make sure our roads are safe, and our local economies are supported by useable roads.”