South-west road conditions voted as a top issue in Victoria election readers' survey

The state and federal governments have committed to repairing the region's main thoroughfare, the Princes Highway, but progress has been painfully slow.

In 2020, the Victorian government signed a deal with the federal government, pledging $38 million for the beleaguered stretch of highway between Colac and the South Australian border. The governments agreed to an 80/20 funding split with the Commonwealth providing the lion's share.

The federal government allocated $60 million for the section between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, but work isn't scheduled to start until 2023.

The latest commitments from the Victorian government for south-west roads include an intersection upgrade at Bridgewater Road and Portland Ring Road in Portland and a roundabout where Timboon-Colac Road meets the Princes Highway. The two south-west projects were among 14 statewide upgrades sharing $101 million in the 2022-23 state budget.

For a region that has long-endured notoriously poor roads, the work can't come soon enough.

A 2016 RACV analysis of regional roads found the south-west had the "worst in the state". It estimated the region had more than 600 kilometres of damaged roads which would have a repair bill of up to $486 million.

The report said the south-west had more rutting (grooves formed in the wheel path) than roughness.

"This can be a serious safety issue because water can pond in the ruts along the road, affecting the braking performance of vehicles," it said.

In 2020 The Standard also revealed lower quality materials had been used to build south-west roads and the region's high rainfall was "no excuse" for its crumbling thoroughfares.

Australian Road Research Board performance modelling leader Tim Martin said the region's roads were not made with the "standard quarry materials" found elsewhere in the state.

"It's normally basaltic or very strong durable material," he said.

"But in the south-west it's often not that durable, it's not that good, it can break down under heavy traffic. One of the problems with the materials in the south-west is that they are also moisture-sensitive as well."

Fix Our Rural Roads Facebook page campaigner Tash Frankensteiner said she was tired of south-west roads receiving "empty promises" during election campaigns then being ignored the rest of the time.

"The roads only get the attention when there's an election coming soon," she said. "It's all empty promises, they can talk the talk but never walk the walk."

Ms Frankensteiner said she thought road conditions in the region had only worsened since 2018 with extreme weather events including floods likely to further deteriorate them.

She said the amount of funding promised for the roads and "Band-aid solutions" like reduced speed limits were insufficient.

"They just throw lunch-money change at us," she said. "They only put in reduced speed signs and temporary fixes. Both sides of politics (are) the same. They all say they're going to fix things but will they?"

A Warrnambool City Council spokesman said south-west councils had successfully lobbied for Princes Highway funding and argued upgrades had been made in the past few years.

"It's important to acknowledge that a considerable amount of work has been done, and continues to be done, on the highway west of Colac, including from Panmure to Allansford," he said.

He said the highway between Port Fairy and Warrnambool and rural roads urgently needed repair and reconstruction.

"(That section) remains a priority," he said. "The design of this section is well advanced and we anticipate that once complete this will be presented to the affected councils.

"A number of (rural) roads were built originally for smaller volumes of traffic and before the introduction of B-double trucks."

He said the council had also called for upgrades to smaller roads including Mortlake Road and Raglan Parade.

Moyne Shire mayor Ian Smith said there was "no denying" state-controlled roads in the region were in need of "significant attention".

"We have long been advocating for significant investments in the state-controlled road network ... and will continue that advocacy until there is significant improvement," he said.

"Exacerbating this are the current floods that have damaged roads throughout the shire. We will know more on this once the rainfall eases and ask that the government keep in mind the state of our roads."

Cr Smith flagged issues with the Princes, Hopkins and Hamilton highways, but said Heywood-Woolsthorpe Road and Macarthur-Penshurst Road had the most concerns raised.

"These are key freight routes which are single lane (and) have terrible shoulders and surfaces, especially in wet weather," he said.

Cr Smith said Moyne Shire also supported campaigns for more investment in freight rail to take heavy vehicles off roads in the region.

In August, Corangamite Shire Council asked for more than $320 million across the next 10 years to fund upgrades for dozens of roads.

Mayor Ruth Gstrein said she had been talking about some of the issues for 20 years. "You just have to keep being the squeaky wheel and hope the funds come our way," she said. "There are 48 rural councils but ours has been neglected for a long time."

Glenelg Shire Council held a campaign in September which called for repairs of the Heywood stretch of the Princes Highway.

In an online video, Cr Karen Stephens said the council had been urging the state government to fix a damaged section which contains a school bus zone for more than 10 years.

"I doubt whether this would be acceptable anywhere else in Victoria," she said. "The conditions of these roads are in an appalling state so the government absolutely needs to come forward and address this issue of safety on a highway for these children."