AN 83-year-old Wonthaggi man says Victoria’s crumbling roads are costing regional drivers thousands of dollars and leaving country people to “fend for themselves”.
Alan Wilson has spent about $1500 in the past 18 months repairing damage he says was caused by potholes on major routes in rural areas.
“Two years ago, I hit a pothole over at Bunyip and it damaged the handbrake mechanism on my car. That was $1300 to get repaired,” Mr Wilson said.
He said he sent the repair invoice to Cardinia Shire but never heard back.
“There was no sign or sound from them. I sort of gave it away as a bad job, but ever since then I’ve done a bit of travelling and the whole road network in Victoria is just riddled with some terrible, life-threatening potholes,” he said.
“I feel like if a politician’s family member was involved in some kind of accident, that’s the only time they may do something about it.”
Mr Wilson, who worked in the bus industry for 25 years before retiring, said he now relies on mechanics and dealerships because he can no longer do his own repairs.
“About $1500 I’ve spent in the last 18 months, over two separate incidents. One at Bunyip and one near Warragul,” he said.
“I’ve just put nice new tyres on the car and I don’t want to ruin any of those.”
Mr Wilson said driving has gone from routine to stressful as he worries about what condition he’ll find the road in each time he leaves home.
“You have to be very cautious when you’re going somewhere you haven’t been for quite some time,” he said.
“The worrying part is that if you have to go and do something, you have to worry about the condition of the road. Years ago, you wouldn’t have a worry in the world. If a pothole developed, it was fixed overnight almost. The councils had a patrol truck that went around and fixed all these issues, but now no one wants to do anything.”
He said the deterioration was obvious when he compared his years on the buses to now.
“I’ve been retired for about 17 years, and I’ll be 84 in a couple of weeks. When I was on the buses, we rarely saw any potholes, but if you did, you’d report it to the boss, he’d take it up with the relevant shire and it would be fixed before you got home to the kids that night.”
The state of the roads, he said, is even affecting how often he sees his loved ones.
“My family lives in Drouin and they don’t want to drive down here because they don’t know what they’re going to find. This is fracturing families as well.”
Mr Wilson’s frustration comes in the same week more than 20 cars were damaged by a deep pothole on the Princes Freeway near Nar Nar Goon, east of Melbourne. Drivers reported blown tyres and undercarriage damage after hitting the water-filled hole during heavy rain, with many forced into the emergency lane to wait for help as tow trucks and roadside assistance tried to clear the backlog.
In that case, the pothole was patched over the weekend and the Department of Transport and Planning said crews returned to complete the repairs, but affected motorists now face large repair bills.
The incident has intensified calls for more preventative maintenance.
Closer to home, a notorious and stubborn stretch of potholes in McKenzie Street/Bass Highway, Wonthaggi, re-emerged after recent rain before being patched again on Wednesday,
November 12. Locals say it is one of several spots in town that repeatedly break up after wet weather, forcing drivers to slow suddenly or swerve around fresh damage.
Mr Wilson said he believes regional roads simply do not receive the same attention as city infrastructure.
“Get your act together. Stop spending money in Melbourne and start to think about the country people,” he said.
“We’ve got a right to live with decent roads and other infrastructure just as much as city people. Is the new tunnel going to open in Melbourne with its share of potholes? I bet it doesn’t.
Anything down there would be fixed almost straight away. They’re too city-centric in my opinion, and the country people are left to fend for themselves.”
He worries that if something doesn’t change, it won’t just be private motorists footing the bill.
“It’s only got to get to a point where V/Line services start to have serious problems with tyres and need to increase their contracts because the potholes are causing them serious problems,” he said.
“I have 25 years in the bus industry, so I know what I’m talking about.”
Mr Wilson said he would like to see longer-lasting repairs and more attention paid to regional routes before more people are hurt or pushed into financial hardship.
See online at sgst.com.au for Department of Transport and Planning response.
