REPEATED rain and flooding events on the east coast have seriously damaged critical road infrastructure across Australia’s grain growing regions, according to an Australian grain farmers advocacy group.

GrainGrowers recently released a statement that it wants to see improvement in access and efficiency of the grain supply chain and is seeking urgent maintenance, funding, and long-term solutions for growers.

While the recent damage is severe in impacted areas, long-term underfunding of regional road networks is an issue nationally, leaving growers across Australia facing major delays and logistical issues.

Council-owned local roads make up 87 per cent of Australia’s road network and play a critical role in first and last mile grain freight access.

Many rural local councils were already struggling to maintain their large road networks, with recent flooding only exacerbating the funding deficit.

Some local councils have said they will be forced to close flood impacted local roads as they cannot afford to repair them.

GrainGrowers said to ensure growers continue operating safely and efficiently, “it is vital that increased funding is provided to repair regional local roads”.

Much of Australia’s regional bridge infrastructure was built over 50 years ago and is coming to the end of its lifetime.

Rural and regional road managers are often unable to afford the cost of replacing bridges and are instead forced to implement bridge load limits to protect their assets.

These load limits inhibit productivity by restricting the total weight a heavy vehicle can carry over the bridge, resulting in the use of smaller and less efficient heavy vehicle combinations to transport grain.

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) 2021 State of the Assets report found that five per cent of concrete bridges are in poor condition with a replacement value of $1.2 billion.

Also, 18 per cent of timber bridges are in poor condition with a replacement value of $310 million.

Funding has been reduced in the forward estimates for the Bridges Renewal Program in the recent budget.

GrainGrowers said there needs to be a significant investment in roads infrastructure with an emphasis on key freight routes.

“Rather than just patching potholes, it is crucial the Federal Government invest in improving the long-term resilience of key grain freight networks,” they said.

Potholes, cracked bitumen, broken shoulders and flying debris have been blamed for a spike in damage to trucks on regional roads.

Meanwhile, figures provided to Senate estimates showed federal funding has been reduced on key Victorian grain freight routes, including:

$60m for the Goulburn Valley Highway;

$41m for the Green Triangle;

$26m for the Melbourne-to-Mildura Calder Highway corridor;

$25m for the Ballarat-to-Ouyen corridor of the Sunraysia Highway;

$23m for the Western Highway from Stawell to the South Australian border; and

$8.9m for the Murray Valley Highway between Echuca and Robinvale.

Infrastructure department assistant secretary, Robert Bradley, told estimates the reductions were earmarked for future priorities and no funding had been taken away from projects that were contracted or under construction.

Funding for regional roads and rail across Australia has been slashed by $1.2b over the next four years, although the Federal Government maintained regional Australians will be better off in the long-term after a promised $4b infrastructure spend increase over the next decade.