Motorists within the Mitchell Shire and the wider regional Victoria are no strangers to bumpy rides with potholes and uneven surfaces plaguing regional roads.
Liberal Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said 45 per cent of the state’s road asset maintenance budget has been cut since 2020, with an additional $260 million meant for regional roads slashed from this year’s State Budget.
“Victoria’s regional road network, particularly in northern Victoria, is third-world standard due to systematic underinvestment by the Andrews Labor Government over the last nine years,” Ms Lovell said.
Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland said $120 million had been slashed from the road surfacing budget alone.
“[Regional roads] needed fixing before the October floods and now the issue has only gotten worse,” Ms Cleeland said.
“There are potholes, crumbling roadsides and compromised surfaces in almost every town in the Euroa electorate.
“Labor’s pothole patching program is cheap, temporary and has been totally ineffective.”
Within the Mitchell Shire, the roads such as Watson Street, Wallan and Sydney Street, Kilmore, which fall under the VicRoads responsibility, are littered with potholes with no indication of proper repair.
Currently Watson Street, Wallan has 40-kilometre speed signs placed along the road next to ‘uneven surface’ signs.
A State Government spokesperson said since 2014, ‘record investments’ had been made in maintaining regional roads expected to continue over the next 12 months as $770 million was put towards maintaining Victoria’s roads.
During the 2020-21 financial year, the government delivered the largest road maintenance program in Victoria’s history with 2430 kilometres of road rebuilt, resurfaced and repaired – 1800kms were regional roads.
“We know how important roads are for regional communities – that’s why the majority of our road maintenance budget will be spent rebuilding and repairing regional roads, particularly those damaged by last year’s floods and record rainfall,” they said.
A multi-year funding model for road maintenance backed by an additional $2.8 billion in funding means $6.6 billion will be invested in maintaining state roads over the next decade – however it was not specified by the spokesperson how much would be allocated towards regional roads.
As part of this plan, $770 million will be spent maintaining Victoria’s road assets over the next 12 months which the government spokesperson said remained on par with long term averages.
“Under this investment hundreds of Victorian roads will undergo rebuilding and repair works – including roads in Mitchell Shire,” they said.
“Experts from the Department of Transport and Planning are currently finalising a program of these works and the State Government will keep the community informed as they begin rolling out over the coming months.”
The spokesperson said the government needed to wait for warmer, drier conditions as delivering this work in the wet or cold would mean risking the projects being significantly delayed or failing.
