There are plenty of potholes and unsafe roads in the region. Social media is full of commentary. In part, that reflects the higher than average rainfall over the past year and for the previous two years.

In response, a major Victorian Government investment will help support an annual maintenance blitz on the state’s arterial roads, improving connections for drivers across central Victoria. Hepburn Shire Council is also investing substantial funds in local roads.

The $780 million state government investment represents a doubling of funding from a decade ago. Their plan is to rebuild, repair and resurface more than 365 kilometres of roads across central Victoria.

Almost 300 individual projects will target some of the Central Victoria’s busiest and most important transport and travel routes, including the Calder Highway, Lancefield-Tooboorac Road and Tylden-Woodend Road.

The roads with highest priority have been selected based 0n expert inspections and community feedback in order to ensure that works are delivered where local drivers need them most.

Right across the state, crews will deliver more than 1,300 individual road maintenance projects, patch thousands of potholes and replace and repair 20,000 roadside signs.

This major investment will also ensure other vital parts of the road network are up to scratch, including rebuilding bridges, culverts and retaining walls, and inspecting and maintaining thousands of traffic lights, signs and other structures. The works are expected to support an estimated 1,800 jobs right across the state.

Hepburn Shire Council has allocated around $3.3 million to road maintenance and repairs this financial year, equating to around 7.5% of Council’s operating expenditure, on top of $3.8m on capital road renewals and upgrades.

Community members concerned about any road conditions or potholes are encouraged to log a service request with Council online at https://www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/Council/Report-an-issue or by calling one of the Customer Service centres. It is important to remember Council isn’t responsible for all roads. Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) is responsible for major, arterial roads including sections that traverse townships.  The public can log a service request with RRV at Report a road issue : VicRoads.

Council continues to receive an unprecedented number of requests for road maintenance on Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) roads and although Council staff will forward reports to RRV where appropriate, people are encouraged to report issues directly to RRV.

The state government will invest an additional $3.2 million in maintaining regional roadsides, with more mowing, weed spraying and graffiti removal work set to be completed across the network.

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