Beginning The Flood Recovery In Victoria

Flood-affected communities can begin their recovery with extra funding for families, roads and clean-up efforts.

To re-connect communities and get people and freight moving quickly across the state, a $165 million emergency road repair blitz will help to find and fix potholes, asphalt and repair road surfaces damaged by the recent weather event and get Victorians in flood-affected areas back on the road.

The package will also cover larger-scale works like the rebuilding of roads, bridges and culverts – particularly in the Western, Hume and Loddon Mallee regions which have been most heavily damaged to date.

Since the beginning of the flood emergency, 509 roads have been closed, with 150 already reopened. Where water levels have subsided to safe levels and emergency services deem it safe to do so, crews are working around the clock to restore access.

In just a few days,hundreds of crews have already undertaken more than 500 individual inspections, found and fixed 10,000 potholes and attended more than 20 landslips right across Victoria.

Major Roads Projects Victoria is working closely with contractors across the Big Build’s road program – including Fulton Hogan, Downer, Winslow and BuildGroup – who have offered to join in a coordinated effort with Regional Roads Victoria to repair our roads.

Crews have already made significant progress on repairs on the Hume Freeway, the Western Highway, the Goulburn Valley Freeway and the Murray Valley Highway.

With more rain forecast in the coming days, the immediate focus is on making key roads usable and safe for emergency services and freight, so vital supplies can reach affected communities as quickly as possible.