Victorian roads 'crumbling' as government misses repair target by 25 per cent

The department had aimed to repair 12,140,000 square metres of road surface in 2022-23, but managed just 9,029,000 square metres, a 25.6 per cent shortfall.

The government blamed the missed target on rising material costs and additional damage to compromised road surfaces from heavy rainfall.

But South West Coast Liberal MP Roma Britnell said the shortfall was a symptom of the government's neglect of the regions.

"This city-centric Labor government is falling short of its own road repair target. The level of disregard beggars belief," Ms Britnell said.

"The Labor government has been cutting the road maintenance budget year by year, as a result our roads are in an appalling state."

While regional road repairs fell more than 25 per cent below target, repairs in metropolitan Melbourne fell just five per cent short.

In late August the government said its routine maintenance program had been significantly affected by emergency repair works following major flooding in October 2022.

The annual report emphasised the scale of the repairs.

"A total of 1437 kilometres of road underwent flood recovery works. This included 79.9 kilometres of drainage works, 834.7 kilometres of pavement works, 10 kilometres of full road pavement rehabilitation and 512.4 kilometres of roadside recovery works," the report said.

But these repair works were included in the annual maintenance figure and the government didn't cite the floods as a reason for missing the target.

The report showed total road maintenance costs had spiked by more than 15 per cent, to $1.98 billion for the financial year.

The statistics also showed the government had missed nearly all its road quality targets in regional Victoria.

While the report claimed the proportion of roads meeting cracking standards had increased from 98.5 per cent to 98.8, the data showed it had fallen to 98.4 per cent, missing its target.

The data also showed a blowout in project lead times, with just 42 per cent of major repairs getting finished on time, barely half of the target of 80 per cent.

The government blamed "inclement weather" for the delays.

Road safety spending was also cut by 25 per cent, with just 60 per cent of road safety projects finished on time.

The government said the cuts were "due to changes to the delivery of the accident blackspot initiative".

Meanwhile, the government still hasn't released its road maintenance targets for the current financial year, despite already being four months in.

Ms Britnell said the figures painted a concerning picture with summer approaching.

"We have got the Christmas period approaching, and people are getting more and more concerned. We want people to be safe on our roads, particularly as this busy period arrives coming up to Christmas," she said.

"We see roads like the one from Port Fairy to Warrnambool literally breaking up and crumbling before our very eyes, and we see the road from Warrnambool to Mortlake absolutely falling apart.

"Without a sufficient resurfacing and resealing program, the deterioration of our roads will only accelerate."