A Princetown resident says a head-on collision is "inevitable" along a just-resurfaced stretch of road crumbling during peak tourist season.
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In a video showing the "completely botched" section a few hundred metres south-east of the Clifton Beach Lodge, resident Tom Westmore appears to pick up large clumps of the tarmac with ease.
He said it was "an absolute abomination".
"The road is a winding stretch of 80 kilometre per hour road and by far the busiest in our district," he said.
"One side is in decent order and the other is completely degraded.
"I could press my finger into the road and it would form indentations and in another bit I was picking up large clumps of tarmac as it was giving way.
"It might be 30 centimetres long and as you pick it up it's melting so it falls into three or four pieces onto the ground.
"The whole thing is malleable on hot days and a one tonne - let alone 10 tonne - vehicle obliterates it."
In a response to questions posed by The Standard, Department of Transport and Planning regional director Michael Tudball confirmed the contributing factors.
"A combination of increased heavy vehicle traffic and hot weather has caused surface damage to a section of the Great Ocean Road," he said.
"We have crews out inspecting this damage and are in the process of preparing roadworks to repair it."
The department said those works would involve removing the damaged road surface and replacing it with a smoother and more resilient one.
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But Mr Westmore said it left road users with few options in the meantime.
"What I've seen happen on a couple of occasions is cars veering onto the wrong side of the road to avoid these huge pot hole, over double lines and on a bend and it's a matter of time before a head-on happens here or someone's run off the road," he said.
"With the volume of car traffic, it's an inevitability. It will happen.
"If you take away driving on the wrong side of the road the risk is still considerable, you have deep, deep potholes up to three inches deep which can puncture tyres and cause damage to bumper bars.
"People will swerve to avoid them so who knows what could be the result there.
"In the family hatchback I'll drive over it at about 40 kilometres an hour being really careful to avoid the potholes. I've probably got two wheels on the left hand verge of the road to avoid those pot holes."
He said he wanted to know how this could be allowed to happen.
"If we get many more hot days in the mid 30s, almost the whole surface will go," he said.
"I acknowledge that the intention (to fix it) is there and they are trying to make it safe, but their contractors have completely botched the surface of this road.
"It's an absolute abomination that a firm can be paid this vast sum of money and put something down that (disintegrates) when the weather gets to 35 degrees - we live in Australia."
Motorists can report damage to state-owned roads by calling Regional Roads Victoria on 133 778.
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Jessica Greenan
Journalist at The Warrnambool Standard covering both Moyne Shire and Corangamite Shire Council. Sometimes court. Special interest in all things environment.
Journalist at The Warrnambool Standard covering both Moyne Shire and Corangamite Shire Council. Sometimes court. Special interest in all things environment.
