TYRE repair businesses in Warrnambool are reporting an influx of furious motorists needing new tyres due to roads riddled with potholes.
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The recent wet weather has meant recently patched potholes around the south-west have opened causing costly damage for road users.
Bridgestone Warrnambool manager Jamie Baulch said there had been a massive rise in the number of vehicles with cracked rims.
“We’ve had some that have separated from the sidewall of the tyre,” he said.
“They are absolutely furious.
“If the pothole is filled with water you don’t know until you’ve hit it how deep it is.
“Everyone is angry, they’re paying their regos and not getting anything for it.”
Tyreplus Warrnambool proprietor Stuart Bishop echoed Mr Baulch’s comments and said the roads simply couldn’t cope with the wet weather given the lack of maintenance.
“The wet weather just wrecks the roads,” he said.
B and S Discount Tyres owner Tony Cronin said his Camperdown business had seen a lot of cracked and dented rims in recent days.
“It’s an ongoing thing,” he said. “A week ago we had one and the rim had come completely apart.
“Some people go to the council and they pass it onto VicRoads and they just go back and forward.”
Moyne Shire mayor Jim Doukas said the council had been contacted about a number of roads but the majority of them appeared to be part of VicRoads network.
“Last year was the same … every winter it gets worse and worse,” he said. “They can’t just keep re-patching them.”
Cr Doukas said the council was in constant contact with VicRoads about the issue. “They all know about it, right up to the Roads Minister,” he said.
In summer VicRoads will start a two-year program of repairs on the Princes Highway between Terang and Warrnambool.
So far this year they have repaired about five kilometres of the Hopkins Highway between Ellerslie and 2.7 kilometres of road north of Ellerslie towards Mortlake will be repaired in October.
Next week VicRoads will begin fixing a 50 metre section of the Mailors Flat Caramut Road about 11 kilometres north of Ibbs lane. As the weather warms up VicRoads plans to grade shoulders, improve drainage and resurface about 6.5 kilometres of the Cobden-Warrnambool Road between Naringal and Brucknell.
VicRoads Regional Director Mark Koliba said the state government had doubled its spending on road maintenance and rehabilitation.
“As the weather improves we are preparing for a bumper construction period, to ensure people are safe on our roads,” he said.
