Road maintenance season begins

THE Victorian government has started a $964 million road maintenance blitz to rebuild, repair, and resurface roads across Victoria.

Road workers will begin delivering the equivalent of $2.6 million worth of works for every day of the year, with about 70 per cent of funding going to regional Victoria.

Over the next nine months, crews will complete thousands of projects, ranging from road rehabilitation and resurfacing, to patching potholes and maintaining bridges, traffic lights, signage and road infrastructure.

Road works in the Geelong region include:

• Bayside Road between Sea Breeze Parade and Shell Refinery, Geelong
• Princes Highway West between Bacchus Marsh Road centre pier and Anakie Road ramp, Norlane and between the Midland Highway centre pier and the end of the noise wall, Geelong, and
• Surf Coast Highway between Pioneer Road and Perrett Street, Grovedale.

Major works such as road rebuilding and rehabilitation require extended periods of warmer and drier conditions, meaning most work is done between now and May each year.

Repeated flooding and above-average rainfall caused heavy damage to Victorian roads, so the road maintenance program focused on rebuilding damaged roads last year.

The blitz will target the state’s busiest travel and trade routes, with roads prioritised based on expert assessments and community feedback.

This package also includes flood recovery works.

On Monday this week, Minister for Roads and Road Safety Melissa Horne launched the 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.

“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.”