Wednesday 20 March 2024
A staggering 91 per cent of Victorian roads have been classified as “poor or very poor” in a pavement condition assessment undertaken for the State Government.
In 2023, not a single road in the survey was classified as “good” or “very good” with the remaining nine per cent only listed as “fair”.
The National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) conducted the survey for the Department of Transport across 8400 kilometres of the state’s road network.
Despite state government excuses about wet seasons, only 707km of this was rated as flood affected.
It comes after the Allan Labor Government’s 45 per cent cut to the road maintenance budget since 2020, leading to the appalling state of roads in metropolitan and regional areas.
The survey was undertaken using the NTRO’s iPAVE technology and was spruiked by the Labor Government in January last year as “world-first” despite being used by other states for years before-hand.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said despite the findings of the research, the Labor Government cut the road maintenance budget by 25 per cent in the current year’s budget.
“This survey just confirms what regional Victorians already know – that the state of our roads are disastrous after years of funding cuts by the Labor Government.
“To see that 91 per cent of our roads are in poor or very poor condition is an indictment of the government’s performance and that affects every Victorian travelling our roads every day.
“This data shows that the blip of an increase in roads maintenance spending during Covid has now been wiped out and our roads are even worse off now.
“What’s more alarming is that the further 25 per cent cut in the current Budget means there is no resurfacing program happening in the state this year – that will only see our road pavements get worse in future years, not better.
“Labor can’t manage money, can’t manage projects and it’s Victorian motorists who are paying the price.”