A STAGGERING 91 per cent of Victorian roads have been classified as ‘poor or very poor’ in a pavement condition assessment undertaken for the State Government.

This comes as Victoria’s road toll is significantly up by almost 12 per cent compared to the same time last year, while New South Wales has increased a disturbing 39.7 per cent, and 30 per cent in South Australia.

110 Australians lost their lives on the roads in February.

In 2023, not a single road in the Victorian roads survey was classified as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ with the remaining nine per cent only listed as ‘fair’.

The National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) conducted the survey for the Department of Transport across 8400 kilometres of the state’s road network, that determined only 707km of this was rated as flood affected.

The Nationals Roads and Road Safety shadow minister, Danny O’Brien, said despite the findings of the research, the State Government has cut the road maintenance budget by 25 per cent in the current year’s budget.

“This survey just confirms what regional Victorians already know - that the state of our roads are disastrous after years of funding cuts by the Labor Government,” he said.

“To see that 91 per cent of our roads are in poor or very poor condition is an indictment of the government’s performance and that affects every Victorian travelling our roads every day.”

Mr O’Brien also said that the State Government’s 45 per cent cut to the road maintenance budget since 2020 was leading to the appalling state of roads in metropolitan and regional areas.

“This data shows that the blip of an increase in roads maintenance spending during COVID has now been wiped out and our roads are even worse off now,” he said.

“What’s more alarming is that the further 25 per cent cut in the current Budget means there is no resurfacing program happening in the state this year - that will only see our road pavements get worse in future years, not better.”