The Victorian Government’s $964 million road maintenance program that aimed to repair hundreds of kilometres of roads across the state wrapped up in July, but some politicians are saying not enough has been done to repair roads around the Goulburn Valley.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Crews inspected roads and responded to calls from local communities, undertaking repairs on more than 211,000 potholes, mowing and slashing more than 50,000km of grass, and repairing or replacing almost 41,000 signs.
And later this year, crews will be back on the road delivering the Victorian Budget 2025/26 Better Roads Blitz, a record single-year investment that aims to deliver proactive and routine maintenance works on the state’s 23,000km arterial road network.
It also aims to enable crews to deliver other works, including vegetation management, inspecting and maintaining structures such as traffic lights, bridges, signage, safety barriers and other assets, along with roadside cleaning.
Roads and Road Safety Minister Melissa Horne said drivers would be experiencing the benefits of the blitz, no matter where they were or what they were doing.
“Crews have worked tirelessly to deliver long-term repairs on our road network, completely rebuilding and repairing hundreds of kilometres of roads to ensure smooth journeys for all Victorians,” she said.
“We delivered record roads funding last year and this budget delivered even more — our massive $976 million Better Roads Blitz will fix potholes and upgrade road surfaces right across Victoria.”
Some of the roads worked on in the Hume region under the road maintenance program include:
1.4km on Echuca Rd in Mooroopna, between Treacy St and Craigmuir Dve
1.8km on the Goulburn Valley Hwy in Mangalore West near Aerodrome Rd
200m on Barooga Rd, Cobram between Dillon St and Gemmel St
300m on Midland Hwy, Swanpool Rd, Swanpool
State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said regional Victorians would be disappointed to hear the road maintenance program was wrapping up.
She called on Ms Horne to instruct the Department of Planning and Transport to urgently start work on comprehensive repairs to dangerous sections of the Goulburn Valley Hwy while speaking in parliament on Wednesday, July 30.
“The state of Victoria’s regional road network is an absolute disgrace ... regional roads go neglected,” she said.
“I witnessed around six cars pulled over on the side of the road between Murchison and Nagambie to change blown tyres, which proves that repairs on the GV Hwy are far from complete, and the road remains unsafe.”
Graffiti around a pothole on the corner of Robinson St and Stevenson St near the Caledonian Hotel in Murchison.
In a constituency question to Ms Horne, state Member for Northern Victoria Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell said she received “weekly complaints” about the poor state of roads in her electorate.
“There are four areas of the road that need immediate repair — deep potholes in the southbound lane north of Spences Rd and just south of Numurkah, crumbling bitumen in the southbound north of Congupna, and in the overtaking lanes between Numurkah and Congupna,” she said.
A Department of Transport and Planning spokesperson told The News crews had been delivering road repair works at various locations on the Goulburn Valley Hwy between Numurkah and Shepparton from early last week.
“Drivers can expect to continue to see crews delivering multiple asphalting projects on GV Hwy until the end of August,” the spokesperson said.
“We rebuilt, repaired and resurfaced hundreds of kilometres of roads across the state last financial year thanks to a $964 million single-year investment from the Victorian Government towards maintaining Victoria’s arterial road network.”
The Department of Transport and Planning encouraged people to notify it of any road hazards by calling 13 11 70.
