KEVIN Bourke's complaints about the dangerous state of the Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road have been falling on deaf ears for the past 10 years.
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Fifteen centimetre deep potholes, pools of water, jagged and sharp edges and flying stones are just some of the hazards motorists are forced to encounter every day.
And with VicRoads and Moyne Shire both blaming each other, the Bessiebelle farmer and contractor is furious.
"The section of road that fronts this property is an absolute disgrace," he said.
"People say to me don't you pay your rates, but the rates I pay could pay a man nearly full-time to fix the road myself.
"You only have to look at the rows of potholes. It just shows the neglect. There's no pride in the (road) work any longer, when years ago it was your signature."
His frustration increased this month when about 20 large and permanent yellow signs were erected, warning drivers the road is slippery when wet and advising them to slow to 80 kilometres an hour.
Mr Bourke said the money it cost to erect the signs would have been better spent fixing the road which is classified for over-dimensional vehicles and used by cars, buses, truck and B-doubles on a daily basis.
"Undoubtedly there will be a bad accident one day," Mr Bourke said.
He said the edges were worn off the bitumen and water run-off quickly created a series of potholes in the limestone along the roadside.
Mr Bourke said vehicles had to move off the sealed surface to allow ongoing vehicles to pass.
"People not used to deep potholes hit them and panic," he said.
"There was so much water pooled up along a section the other day you could ski along the side of it."
He believes the road should be declared an unsafe workplace for drivers of transport vehicles such as courier vans, grain trucks and milk tankers.
Mr Bourke said he had recently come to the aid of a young driver who had damaged both left-hand mag wheels and tyres of his SS Commodore after slamming into potholes.
But the cost for Mr Bourke is not just his time helping stranded motorists. He too has faced an expensive run of repairs.
Prior to Easter he spent $3600 in one day to repair the bulk of his vehicles after their windscreens were cracked or chipped from flying stones.
"Within two weeks I was back to where I was with damaged windscreens again."
His wife was driving their new LandCruiser ute along the road and was forced off to the side to allow oncoming traffic to pass.
The ute struck the steel base of a white plastic roadside pole that had snapped off earlier, piercing two tyres and tearing their side walls off at a cost of $380 each.
Mr Bourke said the road was "brilliant" for the first couple of kilometres at its eastern end, but then deteriorated badly before it improved along a stretch near Bessiebelle and then failed again.
"Then when you get to the Glenelg Shire you hit a surface that's full width and it's wonderful," he said.
"That's the same road, but in a different shire."
Mr Bourke is a member of Moyne Shire's new focus roads advisory group and is hoping for some answers and, more importantly, some solutions.
Neighbouring farmer Ross Kelly said he was amazed there had not been a fatality along the road which suffered from potholes in winter and dust from the limestone in summer.
"It's just getting worse - the road is a 1960 surface when a 10-tonne truck was big," Mr Kelly said.
"Now there are 70-tonne B-doubles using it.
"It's amazing there hasn't been a death on it."
VicRoads acting regional director, Sebastian Motta told The Standard that VicRoads understood the importance of the Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road as a key east-west link for farmers, business and local residents.
"Since 2008, $1.7 million of road surface rehabilitation has been carried out on Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road. Safety has also been improved with curve and crest widening at key locations.".
