“THE STAR”, Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - PAGE 7
Highway state slammed Pothole forced truck to bounce across lane By Chris Brown TRUCK drivers and transport businesses are, just like motorists, frustrated with the state of the region’s highways.
They say the roads are deteriorating, with new potholes appearing all over the region. The huge weight of trucks means drivers are more attuned to the disintegration occurring on vital transport routes such as the South Gippsland Highway. Recently, a pothole on Beilby’s Hill near Koonwarra created fear when it caused a truck to bounce across the highway. Peter Stoitse Transport at Welshpool puts 30 trucks on the road every day. Transport manager Steven Stoitse said the roads are deteriorating from Foster to Yarram. He said the South Gippsland Highway drops off in places and between Welshpool and Hedley water accumulates on the highway after rain. “The problem with this highway, as well, is there are not enough passing lanes,” he said. Frustratingly for transport businesses, registration on B double A trailers has increased from $1300 to $6000. “We get taxed to the hilt on everything,” Mr Stoitse said. “It just doesn’t stop: parts, fuel and registration. Why is the road like that? Where does the money go? It doesn’t go back into roads.” Fellow transport manager Terry Stoitse
said the entire highway was rough, with big dips and potholes. “I would say the highway has deteriorated more since this wet weather,” he said. “They are getting to the critical stage.” Matt Weatherill has been driving for Storr Transport of Toora since 2003. When asked about the worst stretches of roads, he replied: “Where do you start?” At the Nyora turn-off, the truck’s wheels can break spin, while the Foster North area is slippery. “The worst bit for us (truck drivers) is the camber of the road and the slippery bitumen,” Mr Weatherill said. Other concerns are disintegrating roads and bridges so narrow truck mirrors almost hit each other as they pass. Another driver at Storr Transport, Geoff Storr, said he loses track of where all the potholes are. Mr Storr nominates the Stony Creek straight, Deep Creek bridge and Foster turn-off as areas where water remains on road, increasing the risk of aquaplaning. He called the Koo Wee Rup-Pakenham Road the worst in Australia. Nationals leader Peter Ryan, said he travels the South Gippsland Highway extensively. “Truck drivers tell me that the trip across from Leongatha to Yarram is the one they most dislike in their travels. That trip is very challenging,” he said. A former lawyer, Mr Ryan said it was very difficult in law for anyone whose vehicle is damaged as a result of poor roads, to establish any right to a claim.
Road frustration: transport manager Steven Stoitse from Peter Stoitse Transport at Welshpool.
Dangerous for driving: Storr Transport drivers Lucas Bramfit and Matt Weatherill are concerned about the road.
“Bloody dangerous” VICTORIAN Roads Minister Tim Pallas has been told the South Gippsland Highway is “bloody dangerous”. In another letter to the minister this week, Moyarra resident Trevor Browning wrote the highway from Korumburra to Loch was littered with potholes and called on the government to fund urgent work. “A lot of the holes have been there for well over a month and it’s just getting worse. A couple of spots one to two kilometres on the Melbourne side of Korumburra have been really bad for over 12 months,” he wrote. Mr Browning’s letter mentioned some work was done on the Korumburra-Wonthaggi Road between Korumburra and Anderson Inlet Road, but that was merely “a very rough patch up”. “I was intrigued to note that some of the potholes had been ‘filled’ one morning early last week but the balance of the potholes are still not repaired,” he wrote. “It is of interest to note that some of the repaired holes have broken
away again.” Recently, he noticed a roads worker on the highway filling a hole with bitumen mix and then stamping on it with his foot. “This appears to be a strange way of compacting the mix for a solid repair,” Mr Browning wrote. “I can only assume that this method of repair contributes to the pot holes breaking away within a week as they have done recently. Seems to be a waste of money and effort if the repair only lasts a week!” Paul Bickerstaff lives on South Dudley Road, Wonthaggi. He said repairs are breaking up within 12 hours. He’s also sick of the trucks hurtling past and says he’s been harassed by their drivers because he has to slow to reverse into his driveway. He does that because it’s not safe to back out onto the road. Mr Bickerstaff has written to Chloe Munro who chairs AquaSure, the consortium responsible for the desalination plant. He said he pointed out to her that the road is in a dismal state and that
“Our house shakes when trucks fly past. They do more than 80kp/h.” He said he hadn’t received a reply. A spokesperson for AquaSure acknowledged receipt of the letter, saying, “A response is being prepared.” During the most recent Bass Coast Council meeting, Wonthaggi resident Stella Hitchins, asked council who would pay if cars are damaged using South Dudley Road? There is no roadside verge and she said material piled on the side of the bitumen leaves motorists with “nowhere to go”. “I’ve been run off the road there. B doubles won’t slow down, they don’t give a hoot in hell. I’ve lodged a complaint with AquaSure but I’ve had no response.” Cr Veronica Dowman described Bass Highway as “shocking”. Cr Gareth Barlow moved a motion in urgent business that, “We contact VicRoads and the Minister for Roads regarding the failure of South Dudley Road and ongoing failure of the Bass Highway.” He said it was a matter of urgency. His colleagues agreed.
Funding plea Continued from page 1. VicRoads acting regional director Harvey Dinelli has received many reports from the public about issues on the South Gippsland and Bass highways. “Temporary pothole filling on both the South Gippsland and Bass Highways is underway, before the planned long term solution of asphalt patching is carried out in warmer weather conditions later this year,” he said. Mr Dinelli continued to blame the potholes on significant rain after a long dry period. “We are aware of the commu-
nity’s concern and have crews out repairing damage as quickly as possible within available resources,” he said. In South Gippsland this winter, roads have been underwater and a bridge on the Buffalo-Waratah Road collapsed after flooding undermined bridge abutments. “We are just filling the potholes because to put a grader on the road would just turn the road to slush,” Mr Seabrook said. “As soon as the weather fines up, we will get the grader out and fix the roads up properly. We really need to rip the roads up and grade them and
put them back to shape.” Council will increase spending on the resealing of road works over time to ensure roads hold up, as council reduces its debt, making more money available for capital works. Council this year allocated $1.74 million to reseal sealed roads annually and $1.1 million to resheet gravel roads. Last year, $1.55 million was dedicated to resealing. Next year that sum will be $1.95 million. VicRoads encourages the community to report road faults by phoning 13 11 70. Faults will be inspected and repaired.