Wet weekend exposes State’s pothole-ridden roads again
Local drivers, especially those travelling down the Bass Highway and South Gippsland Highway, as well as those using key connector roads, were forced to repeat a dangerous two-step manoeuvre after wet weather exposed the state’s pothole crisis yet again.
LOCAL drivers, especially those travelling down the Bass Highway and South Gippsland Highway, as well as those using key connector roads, were forced to repeat a dangerous two-step manoeuvre after wet weather exposed the state’s pothole crisis yet again.
But even then, they cracked wheel rims and punctured tyres when they couldn’t avoid impossibly located craters.
Some particularly nasty potholes, with deep, jagged edges opened up at the southern end of the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road on Saturday, between Koo Wee Rup and Pakenham, on Saturday, while sections of the Korumburra Wonthaggi Road, also a VicRoads’ responsibility, weren’t much better.
And there wasn’t a repair crew insight despite a promise by the Carroll Government, back in August, to fix 500,000 potholes by the start of 2027.
Gippsland South MP Danny O’Brien, who has long championed the cause of the state’s failing roads system, might finally get a chance to do something about it, if as expected, the Coalition wins the November 28 election.
But he says that while the potholes are there for all to see, the writing was on the wall when the government failed to deliver even the minimum in proper road maintenance.
Addressing the crisis in the state’s roads would be a top priority for a Liberals and Nationals government, he said.
“Roads have been falling apart all across Victoria and Victorians are fed-up with half-hearted patch up jobs that quickly fall apart. The Liberals and Nationals will finally address the roads crisis that so many Victorians have had to put up with,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Our roads have become goat tracks while Labor has overseen more than $40 billion in major project cost blowouts and $15 billion lost to corruption on the Big Build. We will end the waste and stop the corruption so we can build better and safer roads.
“Under Labor, our regions receive less than 12 per cent of infrastructure spending despite making up 25 per cent of the state’s population. This plan forms part of the Liberals and Nationals’ broader commitment to regional Victoria through the Fair Share Guarantee, which will see 25 per cent of the state’s infrastructure spending directed to our regions.”
The rate of major road repairs has collapsed. Just 234,000 square metres of road were patched in the last financial year, down from 609,000 the year before. On regional roads, there was a 68 per cent drop, from 566,000 square metres to 181,000.
The condition of Victoria’s roads has become a major political headache for Labor especially since the death of motorcyclist Peter ‘‘Tiki’’ Mason, after he allegedly struck a pothole near Trawalla, west of Ballarat in September.
Since becoming premier, Ben Carroll has intensified the focus on improving the state of Victoria’s roads, boosting maintenance funding by $352 million to patch an additional 250,000 potholes.
He also announced an additional $893 million in funding to upgrade 25 more roads, including some in Gippsland.
Recently, a report by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office revealed almost half of the state’s government-managed roads were in poor or very poor condition. The report also found the decline was outpacing repairs and roads were on track to worsen unless $3 billion was spent each year on maintenance.
That is well beyond funding promised by either the government or the opposition so, regardless of the result at the November 28 election, the new government will be playing catch-up on road maintenance against the backdrop of a government financial crisis.
