Data deep dive reveals the crumbling state of Victorian roads

Criticism of the Labor government over road maintenance failures, including on major Victorian highways, has ramped up ahead of the November state election. 

Previously confidential government data about Victorian roads has comprehensively revealed the extent of deterioration and dangerous potholes across the state.

The ABC analysed data from last week's report from the Victorian Auditor General's Office (VAGO) on the maintenance of Victoria's state roads.

The VAGO report found that the proportion of state-managed roads in poor or very poor condition had increased from 39 to 48 per cent between 2021 and 2024.

And the human toll of crumbling roads was brought into sharp focus after the death of a 71-year-old motorcyclist who crashed after reportedly hitting a pothole on the Western Highway near Ballarat last weekend.

The Coalition has seized on the issue, with Nationals leader Danny O'Brien declaring potholes "need to be fixed and fixed properly as a matter of urgency". 

"It is time for action and this needs to be the highest priority now so that no more lives are lost on Victorian roads because of government neglect," he said.

Audit data shows that in 2024 there were 30 Victorian councils where at least half of state-managed roads were in a poor or very poor condition.

The worst performing areas were concentrated in the state's north.

Tracking the pothole problem

Drivers across the state have increasingly reported vehicle damage, including last month when up to 30 cars were damaged on the Princes Freeway south-east of Melbourne.

The data released last week by the auditor shows that the number of unresolved potholes has increased across the state.

It reveals not only are potholes a major problem across regional Victoria but also in greater Melbourne — and that the government is aware because it is tracking the problem.

Even pothole figures shown in the data are likely an under-count, because each number represents a 'defect report' of a pothole which may in fact include multiple potholes.

Defect reports are sourced from contractors and members of the public plus surveys — typically conducted every two years — which track around 29,000 kilometres of state-managed roads.

These include major highways and arterial roads and represent about 15 per cent of the road network in Victoria by length.

The roads carry most of the traffic and freight in Victoria and are overwhelmingly (82 per cent) in regional areas, according to the audit report.

Other roads, such as those managed by councils and toll road operator Transurban, are excluded from the numbers.

The most unresolved pothole reports were recorded in councils such as Towong in the state's north-east and Moyne, which takes in Port Fairy in the state's south-west.

In Melbourne, the highest number of unresolved pothole reports were recorded in outer-suburban council areas such as Melton and Hume.

Mornington Peninsula recorded the most unresolved pothole reports of all metro areas by far — and a large increase over the last 18 months.

Audit data does, however, show that the vast majority of reported pothole defects had been fixed, even though it is clear maintenance crews are struggling to keep up with growing demand.

They will continue to have a big task ahead of them now that Premier Ben Carroll has promised to fix half a million potholes this financial year: double the number last year.

Mr Carroll hopes to have most of the 500,000 potholes fixed by the end of January, with the majority of works to take place in the drier summer months.

That would mean fixing more than 3,000 potholes a day between now and then.

As roads deteriorate, potholes become more likely

Experts say potholes are a symptom of a road needing maintenance and road conditions typically worsen after periods of heavy rain.

Victoria's road network was impacted by widespread flooding in 2022 — particularly in the state's north in towns including Rochester and Shepparton.

Large areas of the state were again affected by floods in December 2023 and then in January 2024.

Swinburne University associate professor of vehicle engineering Ambarish Kulkarni said roads in poor condition were more likely to crack, fill with water and form potholes.

"If you can fix those small cracks in the beginning … the potholes can be prevented,"

he said.

Focus on the Western Highway

The Western Highway is a key road that connects Melbourne's western suburbs to South Australia and carries thousands of heavy trucks daily.

It is where 71-year-old motorcyclist Peter "Tiki" Mason died after he reportedly hit a pothole near Trawalla, west of Ballarat.

While investigations into his death are continuing, some locals have labelled the crash "predictable and preventable" after what they describe as a failure to maintain the road.

Data collected by the Department of Transport on the Western Highway evidences these concerns and mirrors what the audit found across the broader road network: its condition has been deteriorating.

The department said potholes near Trawalla had now been repaired, with "pre-planned major patching works" also scheduled for coming weeks.

But even though the state clearly collects data on road conditions, the auditor-general found some of that data was inadequate, not effectively used to prioritise problems and was not routinely made public.

In the Pyrenees council area of the Western Highway near Trawalla where the crash occurred, 1,055 pothole defects were identified between July 2024 and June 2026, but 100 per cent of them were fixed — at odds with local reports on the road condition in that area.

Dr Kulkarni said Victoria needed to improve its use of data and to prevent problems from happening before they occur, which was also a recommendation from the auditor general.

"We can use technologies like drones and which can scan and identify the cracks and AI can send a message or email people who are responsible to go and fix it as soon as they can," he said.

The state has committed an additional $352 million to fix potholes, on top of more than $1 billion already budgeted for road maintenance.

Preventive and predictive maintenance keeps roads safer for longer and over time would reduce the cost of major works, Dr Kulkarni said.

"Identification and fixing it early on can make the life of the pavements go for 25 to 30 years easily, and that's what is currently missing," he said.