Roads Minister Luke Donnellan has confirmed that sections of the Ballarat-Maryborough Road will receive total resurfacing through much needed maintenance works.
A $130 million maintenance allocation will address many regional arterial stretches which have recently suffered significant damage through flooding.
The Ballarat-Maryborough Road is one of many local stretches which have suffered from recent weather conditions, with patchwork along the stretch continually falling away.
VicRoads regional director Ewen Nevett confirmed on Monday that the road is one of several being monitored.
Mr Nevett said earlier this week that a series of local arterial stretches are currently being monitored, including the Ballarat-Maryborough Road, which has displayed significant wear recently.
“Ballarat-Maryborough Road is one of many roads that are being managed via our normal hazard inspection regime,” he said at the time.
“These hazards are being treated accordingly at this point and will continue to be assessed as it make take weeks or months for flood damage to appear as we move into drier weather.
Mr Nevett also said that the “quantitative cost” of the floods are yet to be determined.
While local councils are included in the federal and state funded Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangement program, arterial roads, handled by VicRoads, are also insured for damage sustained by disasters such as flooding.
Mr Donnellan said the major concern looking forward would be more rain, which could significantly shorten the time spent on maintenance over the summer period. It could be months before local council and VicRoads engineers can determine the extent of damages to local networks.
“Until the flooding and the water and the rains subside, it’s very difficult to assess the damage that has occurred,” he said.
“The real problem is that if we have rain up until Christmas, we’ll miss the pre-Christmas period (where maintenance works are often carried out).
“It will certainly impact what we can do over the first quarter of next year.”
In a letter to the editor published on October 20, Mr Donnellan said pre-construction works on an upgrade to the Western Highway between Ararat and Stawell would carry on.
Mr Nevett also said earlier in the week that the Western Highway remains the “highest priority” for immediate treatment.
“Work commenced today (Monday) on sections of highway to the east and west of Horsham and will take approximately two weeks to complete,” he said.
Michael Pollock
Transport and infrastructure reporter.
Transport and infrastructure reporter.
