Vented Frustration – Did it Work?

A motorist has vented their frustrations at the state of the local roads with an unmissable painted message on the road. 

The message ‘(expletive) Fix Me’ was painted on the road with green paint alongside a rough, patched up section of road where potholes had formed on the Leitchville-Kerang Road, between Barkmeyers Road and Pipers Lane.

A photo of the graffiti and roadwork was posted to local social media and caused a stir, with locals commenting how bad and dangerous the roads across the district are, sharing stories of damage to their vehicles, and calling on authorities to take action before someone is injured or killed.

By Tuesday morning last week, road crews were on site and had patched the holes and removed the graffiti. It is unsure if the repairs were in response to the social media post.

The Department of Transport says an unprecedented amount of rain over the past two years has caused a huge amount of damage to roads, and with further funding committed in the 2023/24 State Budget, it is finalising a program of works to repair hundreds of kilometres of Victorian roads.

“Last year was the second wettest year in the Gunbower area in nearly 50 years, the wettest year since the 2010 floods, and had the highest October rainfall since records began in 1910,” a Department of Transport spokesperson said.

“This unprecedented level of rainfall also caused unprecedented levels of damage to our roads and we’re still seeing new potholes open up months after the peak of the floods due to the amount of water left sitting under the surface.

“Our focus has to be on repairing that damage and that’s exactly what we’re doing, with $770 million set to be spent on maintaining our road assets during 2023/24.”

The department said that in order to carry out these vital repairs, it needs to wait for drier, warmer conditions, and that delivering this type of work when conditions are cold and wet means they risk the repairs not delivering a long-term solution.

In the meantime, it says its crews are monitoring every single kilometre of our arterial road network on a regular basis, delivering short-term repairs where needed and planning for long-term solutions. 

Crews inspected Leitchville-Kerang Road on Monday last week and further repair work took place the next day.

Gannawarra Shire Council Chief Executive Officer, Geoff Rollinson said, “Council continually advocates for upgrades and improvements to roads in the municipality, not only roads managed by Council, but roads managed by VicRoads and Regional Roads Victoria (RRV). These RRV roads include the Loddon Valley Highway (B260), Murray Valley Highway (B400) and other local state managed roads identified on maps or signage which is typically green in colour with a yellow route number C2## prefix.

“In the case of Leitchville-Kerang Road C257, this road is an important freight route for not only last mile connectivity and getting produce to market, but also produce passing through the council in an east-west direction. This is an important link road for our communities and repairs are urgently required to ensure safety to all motorists.

“All road authorities, including Council, have road management plans in place, which sets out response arrangements to repairing defects, and in Council’s case, outlines which roads Council is responsible for managing. When Council staff either receive a request for works to occur or identify defects, Council is required to send a road crew out to repair this damage within a measured timeframe.

“Council has commenced repair works on sections of the road network which were heavily impacted by the 2022 flood event. Approximately 1,000 kilometres of Council responsible roads were impacted and Council is working closely with the State and Federal government to ensure that approval and funding is received by Council to undertake repairs on the road network which Council is responsible for.”

Mr Rollinson encourages residents to report any faults on RRV roads to RRV, and quote the road name and the number prefix.