Road experts have said Ballarat's increased rainfall, though not record breaking, has significantly impacted the likelihood of potholes and road damages with soil and changes in moisture levels having the most profound effect.

They said these cyclic changes in moisture coupled with extreme weather events have only intensified road damage in recent years and consequently, road maintenance programs.

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Ballarat resident James Rowe has been taking notes about the state of Ballarat roads.

"I have certainly noticed them (potholes) a lot more this year," Mr Rowe said.

He has been monitoring a pothole on the corner of the Ring Road and Sturt Street intersection after he saw a motorbike almost topple.

"If he had been going quicker than that, I dare say he would have come off his bike and potentially resulted in an injury," Mr Rowe said.

After calls to Vic Roads and the relevant minister's office the pothole was filled in.

It took two weeks for the relevant authority to come out and fix it, but Mr Rowe said it is still not helping.

"They made a bit of a patchwork quilt attempt to fill it in but it is only a stopgap measure," he said.

"It has already started to get undermined again through vehicle traffic and they sealed it up three days ago."

Mr Rowe is concerned that more focus is placed on metro roads and the regions are being forgotten.

"Ballarat is just one of many places, I think this is part of a wider problem that exists across western Victoria," he said. "Four years away from hosting the Commonwealth Games, it is a disgrace that we may have had potholes that will be on show to the world.

"The roads cannot withstand the vehicles that are on the road in and around Ballarat."

Tyre repair locations across Ballarat told The Courier they had seen a significant increase in tyre repairs over the last few weeks.

"There is often an influx of repairs when there is frequent rain," said a worker from Stamford Tyres.

"European cars often come in with more damage because they have low profile tyres, meaning the space between the top of the tyre and the rim is a lot skinnier."

He said some customers were reporting being surprised by potholes that had appeared overnight.

Federation University civil engineering lecturer Dr Amin Soltani said water damage and increased rainfall in Ballarat has had a significant impact on road quality and potholes forming, with the main triggers being soil and fluctuations in moisture levels.

"If you have a lot of cyclic changes in moisture, defined by periodic rainfalls, and then dry drought seasons, which does happen periodically in Australia, and especially at this point in time it basically just signifies the issues of road quality and potholes and just enhances the issue to be more extreme," he said.

"So that expansion and contraction in the soil causes the pavement surface to actually move upward, downward, and therefore can cause basically, let's say, some damages in the road surface, and it can appear in the form of potholes.

"It's probably why in recent years, we've had more road maintenance programs coming into play because of the more extreme weather conditions that we have had."

While Dr Soltani believes Ballarat does not have a pothole problem he did say it was a town riddled with many road issues, with potholes only forming part of the issue.

"I would probably say that Ballarat has more of an issue with regards to pavement brushing and cracks in the pavement rather than, let's say, traditional potholes and again, it probably has to do with the nature of the soil distribution in Ballarat because we do have a lot of clay soils here, which are highly expansive and when they do get in touch with even a small amount of moisture they can still trigger movements in the soil, and therefore movement in the pavement surface, and therefore destruction of the road," he said.

"And if it's really extreme, it could basically manifest itself in the form of potholes but if it's less extreme, you can see cracking on the pavement surface, which is really prevalent in the Ballarat area."

Dr Soltani said to mitigate road damage more emphasis was needed on soil stabilisation.

"One of the most important things that needs to be considered before a pavement is even constructed is to stabilise the soil," he said.

"I won't say this aspect is disregarded, but it's not given a lot of attention in road engineering projects, especially when we're dealing with low volume roads because it is expensive."

He also said more reliable road designs would aid with minimising road maintenance costs in the long term.

"The other issue that we need to take into account is to probably have more reliable designs for our pavements because contractors often usually try to go with the least expensive option when it comes to road design and construction and if you over design it for example going for 120 millilitres asphalt for a design that dictates 100 millilitres would be enough, although it might be more expensive, it would be more safe and reduce long term maintenance costs."

City of Ballarat chief executive officer Evan King said the council were prioritising road maintenance to ensure the safety of all road users especially during this winter season.

"We have certainly seen an increase in repairs to road defects since 2018 due to increased traffic, wet weather and ageing infrastructure which has contributed to road defects forming on our roads," Mr King said.

"We want the community to know we are listening to their concerns and we are delivering major investment to keep our local roads safe.

"We certainly have our road maintenance team out in force fixing potholes as they appear, and I really encourage the community to submit requests so we can assess, prioritise and rectify."

This financial year, the City of Ballarat is forecasted to spend $10.5 million in road maintenance to maintain more than 1500 kilometres of roads in the Ballarat municipality.

Additionally, the council's draft budget for next financial year will include $11.2 million in maintenance, which is an increase of $700,000, and $19 million in capital road works.

The weather has impacted the amount of work Regional Roads Victoria has been conducting in the region.

"Weather conditions this year have come earlier than what we expected and across the board we are seeing roads being damaged by the weather," RRV regional director Michael Bailey said.

He said there is constantly work along the Western highway to fix blowouts which continue to happen.

"We do inspections of the Western highway as an example daily at the moment just to try and pick up the potholes but things can certainly blow out overnight.

Mr Bailey said they expect an increased cost because of the earlier onset of bad weather.

"We are really lucky that we have the ability to fix the roads and make them as safe as possible.

"In saying that the weather makes it harder to fix the roads because there are only certain techniques we can use when we are in wet weather."

If you would like to report a pothole incident or road issue call Regional Roads Victoria on 133 778.

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