Luke Donnellan’s comments come after The Standard reported tyre repair businesses in Warrnambool had seen an influx of motorists needing repairs due to increased potholes.

Mr Donnellan said the state government had doubled the spending on road maintenance since coming to office and this year VicRoads would be doing more work than they had in decades.

“I know it’s been a wet winter in the south-west, and that has caused a lot of damage to critical roads that people rely on every day,” he said.

“We’ve invested $95 million for maintenance and repair in the south-west this year, but we need dry weather to fix these roads properly.”

Over the next three years the state government will invest $40 million of improvement works on the Princes Highway from Colac to the South Australian border, $153 million into improving safety on the Great Ocean Road and $40 million to fix narrow roads.

Readers took to Facebook to vent their frustrations with the roads. Trina Cannon said there were large potholes on the north side of the Cobden Warrnambool road between Laang Speedway and Ayreford Road. 

“One is approaching a dangerous crest .6kms west of Halfords Road...and another .1km east of Ayreford Road,” she said. “Please take care.”

On Friday 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.”