Victoria’s ‘alarmingly high’ poor road conditions under scrutiny after biker’s death

Victoria has an “alarmingly high” number of roads in poor condition, a transport expert says in the wake of a motorcyclist dying after hitting a pothole.

The motorcyclist died in country Victoria on Sunday, and while exactly what happened is still being pieced together, police were quick to confirm the rider hit a pothole, crashed and died.

Swinburne transportation expert Jo Kuys told NewsWire the state of Victoria’s roads were particularly bad.

“There’s an alarmingly high percentage of poor road conditions here in Victoria, which is unfortunate – and it’s a direct impact for drivers and also pedestrians,” Professor Kuys said.

A key balancing act for local and state governments is patchwork pothole repairs versus “rehabilitation”, which is recoating a degraded road or ripping up and relaying.

“Our primary long-term maintenance strategy isn’t hitting that mark of preventive measures,” Professor Kuys said.

“That’s something the government, when they’re targeting funding, needs to pay closer attention to.

“Because to be honest, potholes and patch repairs, they are very important, but it could be prevented if we have the rehabilitation.”

The Swinburne academic said patchwork could actually turn out to be more expensive per square metre than deeper and broader work.

Balancing maintenance work with rehabilitation was “a very complex strategy”, she said.

“Not to blame any strategy, but if there is an incident like this (motorcyclist’s death), this really highlights the need for monitoring,” Professor Kuys said.

“Potholes and patch repairs are done on a regular basis, but based on visual failures, which is scraping the surface, it’s not getting to the bottom of that ongoing maintenance which is very important for upkeep.”

Just before 1pm on Sunday, lifelong motorcyclist Peter “Tiki” Mason hit a pothole on the Western Highway near Ballarat. The 71-year-old died at the scene.

Just three hours after the crash, police put out a statement saying he “struck a pothole and lost control”, while crash investigators also called for anyone with footage to come forward.