The Victorian Government is rolling out a major road maintenance program, investing almost $1 billion to rebuild and repair roads across the state.
Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, launched the $964 million road maintenance blitz at the South Geelong depot of Fulton Hogan, one of the contractors that will deliver these works between now and mid-2025.
An army of road workers will begin delivering the equivalent of $2.6 million worth of works for every day of the year – with around 70 per cent of funding going to regional Victoria.
Over the next nine months, crews will complete thousands of projects on Victoria’s road network, ranging from road rehabilitation and resurfacing, to patching potholes and maintaining bridges, traffic lights, signage and road infrastructure.
To deliver major works such as road rebuilding and rehabilitation, there must be extended periods of warmer and drier conditions, which is why most work is done between now and May each year – ensuring repairs last.
Repeated flooding and above-average rainfall caused unprecedented damage to roads which meant the maintenance program needed to focus on rebuilding damaged roads last year – simply resurfacing these roads would not have prevented further degradation.
Now that this work to rebuild the most flood-damaged roads is complete, resurfacing and rehabilitation levels will significantly increase during the upcoming maintenance season.
The blitz will target the state’s busiest travel and trade routes, with works set to be delivered on the Hume Freeway, the Princes Highway, the Western Highway, the Goulburn Valley Highway and Echuca-Mooroopna Road.
Other roads set to be repaired include Terang-Mortlake Road, Mornington-Flinders Road, Horsham-Kalkee Road and Tylden-Woodend Road.
The roads were prioritised based on expert assessments and community feedback, ensuring that upgrades are focused where they’re most needed.
This package also includes flood recovery works, with priority given to repairing regional Victoria’s flood-damaged roads. The final list of flood recovery projects will be confirmed in the coming months.
Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, said, “We’re investing nearly a billion dollars to rebuild and repair the roads that Victorians depend on every single day – from the highways connecting our major centres to the local roads that keep our communities moving.
“Crews will be out delivering $2.6 million of works every day for a year – with around 70 per cent of all funding going towards our regional roads.”
