Victoria’s 2021 road maintenance season is now underway, with crews upgrading 2,000km of roads, filling an estimated 220,000 potholes and repairing or replacing more than 30,000 signs during the warmer, drier months.
Sections of vital routes across Melbourne are being rebuilt, including Eltham-Yarra Glen Road in the Yarra Ranges, College Crescent in Parkville, Old Dandenong Road in Heatherton and the Western Freeway at Melton.
In regional Victoria, parts of the Henty Highway in western Victoria, the Northern Highway near Echuca and the Hume Freeway in the north-east will all be upgraded.
The Princes and South Gippsland highways in Gippsland and the Hamilton Highway in the south-west will also receive major investment.
The maintenance blitz will deliver upgrades to important local and tourist roads as well as some of Victoria’s key freight routes which carry high volumes of heavy vehicles each day taking Victorian goods to the world.
The bulk of the road maintenance work is being delivered during the summer months, when weather conditions are best for road construction.
This year’s upgrades are being funded as part of the State Government’s $653 million investment in road maintenance in the Victorian Budget 2019/20 – and work will continue to make the state’s roads safer and more comfortable IN2022 with a further $411 million invested in the Victorian Budget 2020/21.
The budget investment adds to the $124 million injected into road maintenance by the Government in May as a part of the Building Works Coronavirus stimulus package.
Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Ben Carroll, said, “We’re not only delivering smoother and safer roads for Victorians this maintenance season – we’re supporting jobs on the ground right across the state and backing local businesses throughout the supply chain.
“We’re doing the works at the time of year when weather is best for upgrades – and we remind motorists to be careful and drive to the conditions if they come across crews doing work.”
