'Maintenance time bomb': state road resurfacing drops 81 per cent

Figures released by Roads Minister Melissa Horne in Parliament showed road resurfacing spending had dropped from $201.4 million in 2022-23 to $37.6 million in 2023-24.

The 81 per cent drop in spending led to a massive decline in the amount of road repaired during the year.

ACM revealed in May repairs had dropped from more than 9 million square metres refurbished in 2022-23, to just 343,000 square metres in 2023-24, a 96 per cent decrease.

The huge performance shortfall followed a decision by the Department of Transport to ditch its repair targets for 2023-24. The government has denied the ditched targets were the cause of the poor repair performance, but has offered differing reasons when asked to explain what happened.

As of the end of May, the state's regional roads in dangerously poor condition, with 227 roads under active management plans, 440 per cent more than metropolitan Melbourne.

Gippsland South MP Danny O'Brien asked for the road spending figures in February 2024, prompting the detailed response from Ms Horne more than four month later.

Resurfacing expenditure averaged $206 million between 2018 and 2023 before the nosedive in 2023-24.

Mr O'Brien said while the regional road network was already bad, the spending drop "condemned" Victorians for even worse in the future.

"These figures just highlight the drastic budget cuts that have seen our roads deteriorate dramatically over the past few years to a point where the government's own survey last year revealed 91 per cent of roads were in poor or very poor condition," Mr O'Brien said.

"What's worse is that this dramatic reduction in road resurfacing and re-sealing work will lead to worse roads in the coming years."

While road repair funding dropped statewide in 2023-24, expenditure was varied across the state between 2018 and 2023.

Metro Melbourne received by far the most funding over the five years, with an average spend of $63.2 million each year, including $94.4 million in 2020-21.

Barwon South West had the highest average spend of the non-metro regions, with $43.4 million per year.

Hume had an average $40.1 million spent per year, Grampians $31.7 million, Loddon Mallee $21.1 million, and Gippsland $15.9 million.

The 2023 Victorian budget failed to list a road resurfacing target for the coming year, listing the figure as "tbc".

At the time the government said the target was being finalised by Department of Transport experts.

In November 2023, after nearly six months of repeated questioning from ACM, the government said it had could not produce a target for 2023-24 because heavy rain in October 2022 had "impacted" its modelling.

In the 2023-24 year road resurfacing fell to nearly zero in regional Victoria.

Mr O'Brien asked Transport Department Secretary Paul Younis about the massive decline at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee on May 23, but Mr Younis didn't mention modelling failures or missing targets.

"I just think it is really important to understand that this is a deliberate strategy," Mr Younis said.

"I think this is a really deliberate strategy of us making sure we are addressing the issues, the condition the road is in now."

Mr Younis said many regional roads were in such poor condition the department had been forced to give up resurfacing to do deeper structural repairs.

"What we are doing now is improving the strength of the pavement," he said.

A government spokesperson told ACM there had been a "pause" in the resurfacing program, but it would resume in late 2024.

The government will spend $964 million on road repair and maintenance over 2024-25, with money brought forward from the $6.6 billion 10-year commitment made in last year's budget, as well as $105 million in new money.

The May budget stated 3 million square metres of resurfacing would get done in regional Victoria in 2024-25, ten times its 2023-24 level, but only a quarter of the 2021-22 figure.

But the budget papers also predicted the regional road network would deteriorate overall in the coming year.

It stated the number of regional roads meeting cracking, roughness and rutting standards would all decline in 2024-25.