Potholes of Regional Victoria
DR ELIZABETH GIBSON, CMPA and STEPHEN BALLINGER MBE, CONUNDRUM HOLDINGS have written an article on the ever-increasing number of potholes in regional Victoria.
A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying structure and traffic passing over the affected area. The ingress of water first weakens the underlying material, traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. The continued traffic action breaks down and removes both asphalt and the underlying material to create a hole in the pavement.
Potholes in regional Victoria have been increasing. This article focuses on State Government roads. Rather than resealing roads, the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) has taken to lowering speed limits. These speed restrictions have the direct impact of slowing down the road transport network and hence increasing the time taken for freight to reach its destination. At first glance this might not seem important but increased transit times mean increased costs such as more fuel, increased wages, and increased pressure on being able to abide by Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) including fatigue management and ultimately increased costs to the end user/consumer.
For roads to be in a good state of repair they need to be resealed every 8-15 years (depending on road category, vehicle numbers etc.) equating to ~10% resealed every year. The funding of this work was at 2.3% prior to the May budget in 2023. https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traffic-and-road-use/road-network-and-performance/victorias-road-network
If potholes become large enough then damage to wheels, tyres and even vehicle suspensions can occur. This damage to vehicles, and in particularly Heavy Vehicles (HV) as has been reported by a number of Members, is both costly and time consuming to repair, furthermore debris from a pothole can be ejected by a vehicle and cause damage to other vehicles, particularly windscreens, and potentially pedestrians.
A major concern is that on roads with greater speed limits, such as State and Federal Highways, potholes and the subsequent avoidance measures, or loss of control of a vehicle, could result in serious injury or death to road users.
A query was raised by Dr Elizabeth Gibson to DTP as to whether the budget had been reduced:
“I am looking for a breakdown in figures for 2023/24 compared to last financial year 2022/23 for the following regions’ road maintenance funding.
• Barwon South West
• Gippsland
• Grampians
• Hume
• Loddon Mallee
There is concern that the road maintenance budget is much reduced (said to be 25% less) from last financial year. In order to assist CMPA Members in planning for this reduction I would like to confirm the figures for them. Any assistance would be much appreciated.”
The following response was received from DTP.
Michael Bailey CEO Chief Regional Transport (Acting)
“The current state allocation to road maintenance for this financial year is $770m that is comparable to previous years. The concern of a reduction of 25% to the program is not aligned with the numbers provided in the budget papers released in May.
In terms of allocation per region, you may be aware that as we transitioned to the new Victorian Road Maintenance Contracts referenced below we also transitioned to a new operating model with DTP for our provision of maintenance. On the back of this we look at the maintenance required on a statewide basis delivering what is needed where based on road condition and road categorisation.
Included in the new contracting arrangement is an increased requirement for the provision of data from both our contractors and surveillance officers. This allows us to respond in an improved way to the needs of the network and expectations of the community.
Hopefully this helps with the understanding of the new operating model for maintenance, I assume your members are also working within our capital program which continues at the same levels as previous years with a similar list of projects to what we have had in the past.”
However, towards the end of 2023 it became apparent that road maintenance funding had been withdrawn from Regional Victoria around November 2023 prompting another query from Dr Gibson.
“I am in the process of writing an article for CMPA’s magazine Sand & Stone on the withdrawal of funding by DTP for Victorian regional roads maintenance from approximately November 2023. The state of roads in regional Victoria is very poor with many Members reporting costly wear and
tear on heavy vehicles (such as replacing shock absorbers/ suspension parts). According to one Member the issue is “finding the bitumen around the potholes.”
I would like to give DTP the opportunity to provide comment on the withdrawal of funding and when viable (i.e., 10% of the regional road network per annum as opposed to 2.3%) road maintenance is going to resume in regional Victoria.”
A response was promised from DTP but never materialised despite numerous voicemail messages left.
State media has been reporting on the situation since mid-2023, see:
Channel 7 News 15.08.23
“Number of potholes on Victorian roads almost triples in one year.”
https://7news.com.au/news/vic/number-of-potholes-on-victorian-roads-almost-triples-in-one-year–c-11593259
ABC 20.02.24
“Victorians face lengthy waits for road repairs as quarry industry warns of materials shortage.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-20/victorian-pothole-repair-delays-anger-motoristsweather-fatal/103470794
North Central Review 12.03.24
“Pothole petition to repair Wallan’s roads.”
https://ncreview.com.au/2024/03/12/pothole-petition-to-repair-wallans-roads/
Herald Sun 19.03.24
“Victoria’s road network ‘crumbling’ as maintenance budget cuts put new strain on exports.”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/
victorias-road-network-crumbling-as-maintenancebudget-cuts-put-new-strain-on-exports/newsstory/fdc9779f202c298d27a3b0b7d21b7adf
In summary the extractive industry and the regional Victorian community will be very much focused on the Victorian May 2024 budget.
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