General News
4 May, 2024
Call for repairs to address poor state of road bridges
Regional road bridges are among many across the state that need funding urgently to address efficiency and safety issues.
The call from GrainGrowers follows the announcement by the federal government of $45 million for regional safety upgrades.
There has been $20 million allocated to a bridge renewal program, but the group is calling for additional funding under the Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program in the approaching Victorian budget.
GrainGrowers policy manager trade and supply chains Annabel Mactier said while additional road infrastructure funding was needed and welcome, the $20 million directed toward bridges was not sufficient to address the scale of bridge upgrades required.
Ms Mactier said a large percentage of Australia’s regional bridge infrastructure was built more than 50 years ago and was approaching the end of its operational life.
“The stark challenge facing regional councils is that while the cost of bridge maintenance in urban areas is typically shared between 4934 people, in rural areas it is only shared by 142 people," she said.
“This means far too often rural and regional road managers are unable to afford the cost of upgrading or replacing the bridges and are instead forced to implement load limits to protect their assets.
"For the grain industry, these load limits inhibit productivity by restricting the total weight a heavy vehicle can carry over the bridge, resulting in smaller and less efficient heavy vehicle combinations to transport grain.”
Ms Mactier said restrictions on bridges like the Dimboola Bridge on the Western Highway were creating massive pinch-points for grain moving to port.
John Ward, from Murra Warra, between Dimboola and Warracknabeal, agreed the bridge could use improvements for safety.
"The biggest problem is if you are coming from Horsham way you've got four lanes, but when you get to the bridge, if you are carting grain in a truck to the centre in Dimboola the turn off is at the bottom of the bridge and you have to turn right sharply to Jeparit," Mr Ward said.
"You've got to slow up going downhill of the turn so you have to be slowing up a distance before the turn, so you have people behind you 100km/h but you have to slow up before the bridge because once you are on it it's downhill."
Mr Ward said traffic was particularly busy across the bridge at Christmas, with families travelling between Adelaide and Melbourne.
"And here you are halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne with trucks attempting to slow up on a bridge, for God's sake," Mr Ward said.
"It just doesn't make any sense."
VFF president Emma Germano said for people who drove from Victoria to the city in South Australia it was plain to see the difference in the quality of roads.
“Victorians shouldn’t have to drive to South Australia just to drive on a decent bit of bitumen," Ms Germano said.
She said the failure to maintain Victoria’s regional roads was adding costs for farmers and regional Victorians.
“Farmers are actively having to choose alternative freight routes to avoid rotten roads," Ms Germano said.
"This is driving down productivity, adding cost to food production and making farming even more difficult."
Mr Ward said he was pleased repairs on one local road were close to completion.
"The Dimboola-Minyip Road was in a bad state," he said.
"But, believe it or not - and we've been pushing for between 10 and 12 years to get that road completed - in the last six months they've got on with it and they have just about done it," he said.