Damage bill to cars revealed by MP as Warrnambool's highway upgrade ignored

The two claims were among more than 300 lodged by motorists for compensation on the south-west's crumbling roads - most being knocked back.

That could put a price tag as high as $400,000 on damage to vehicles if all those claims were around the $1200 mark, which South West Coast MP Roma Britnell said could be the cut-off for claims.

Ms Britnell said that figure was a conservative estimate and the true number was probably a lot higher.

"It just tells you how much damage it's done to our rural communities cars," she said.

She said a lot of people didn't know you could make a claim for damages.

She said some of the damage she had seen from constituents who had contacted her had been amazing.

"Hundreds of dollars spent on replacing tyres is a lot of money out of a family budget," she said.

Councils have joined forces to apply pressure to the state government to pay its fair share to upgrade the Illowa section of the Princes Highway, but it has so far failed to commit despite $60 million in federal government money sitting idle since May 2019 for the project.

Figures, released under Freedom of Information, showed that poor roads had forced the Department of Transport to pay $12,665 for one claim lodged on March 28, 2019 and a second claim the same day for $7082 resulted in a $5622 pay out.

Ms Britnell said government documents showed across the south-west region 358 claims for compensation had been lodged since 2015.

"The data doesn't show which roads those claims relate too - but that's a large number of people claiming roads have damaged their vehicles," she said.

"A lot of those claims would have been knocked back because they were under the threshold the department sets, but the main issue here is we have at least 358 residents who have had to repair their vehicles because of the poor condition of our roads - how many didn't make a claim?

"These people pay registration to the state government in the expectation they will have high quality roads to drive on - they aren't receiving that. Cars have to be road worthy, but roads don't have to be car worthy."

Ms Britnell said the figures didn't take into account the increased maintenance costs that transport companies had been paying because the road conditions had sped up wear and tear on their vehicles.

"I've had companies telling me they are replacing parts that should last 10 years after only five years. I've had stories of bits of bluestone on the back of a truck being broken because the road is so rough," she said.

Ms Britnell said the payouts for damage on the Princes Highway again highlighted the need for the Labor state government to match funding form the Liberal federal government.

"Since 2019 the federal Liberal government has had $60 million on the table to address the Princes Highway between Warrnambool and Port Fairy," she said.

"So far the Andrews Labor government has ignored that and refused to provide any funding to fix a road that is a state owned asset and it's the people of the south-west who are paying for their reluctance."

Princes Highway West Action Alliance spokesperson Stephen Lucas said he was not surprised there was vehicle damage to cars due to the poor state of south-west roads.

He said lobbying was continuing with the state government to get action on the Illowa upgrade but it was difficult to get to the bottom of why nothing was happening.

"We are going around and around in circles and they're all avoiding it," Mr Lucas said.

Ms Britnell said the state government was running out of excuses.

"The longer they wait, the more compensation they will be forced to pay out," she said.

"The highway is in a shocking state and is at breaking point.

"We saw in September last year after rain that one lane of the highway had to be closed because it literally fell apart and huge potholes formed.

"Advisory speed limits have been set at 80 km/h for years and now we learn that in one day more than $18,000 was paid out to motorists in compensation.

"This has gone on for long enough. The Andrews government must match the federal government's funding and get on with the job of fixing the fundamental issues this section of highway has.

"If they don't, we will continue to throw good money after bad into band aid repairs that just don't hold up and within weeks, we are back at square one."

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