IN THE RED!

AS OUR ROADS EMULATE THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, GOVERNMENTS ARE DOING THEIR BIT TO SHIRK ALL RESPONSIBILITY

- DAVE MORLEY

A mate of mine recently told me (and, trust me, he’s in a position to know) that the state of Victoria was so utterly cash-strapped that there was not a single road improvement job set down for the current financial year. Not one. Oh sure, they’d probably get around to fixing damaged roads when they could, but actual road improvements or upgrades? Nope. Not a sausage. Other States and Territories are possibly in a similar pickle.

Of course, this dire set of financial numbers has inevitably meant damaged roads haven’t been fixed in a timely manner, either, and that goes for the State and council-controlled roads. Anybody who has driven between Melbourne and Yea (about an hour north of the city on a fairly major arterial) in the last couple of years would know all about their car’s steering response. That’s because any trip on that road involves constant swerving, ducking and diving to avoid falling into a pothole with its own post-code. At least Victorian drivers are constantly brushing up on their motorkhana skills.

In fact, even the Hume Freeway (probably the most important road in the country) just near Broadford has its share of giant holes, one of which boss man Ang found when we visited the MOVE museum at Shepparton a couple of months ago. One minute, we’re sailing along in his bright yellow XR6 Turbo, the next there are corn chips and oaths being scattered around the cabin as the Falcon took a nose-dive into a huge hole that sent the front-right strut smashing into the tower, and Ang’s OCD in to orbit over what had just happened to his car.

Okay, so we’ve had some pretty wild weather events in that time, including some big downpours that typically play merry hell with bitumen, but that doesn’t really excuse the time it has taken to get some of these monster craters filled. Oh, and even as I write this, many of them still haven’t been repaired.