Community
31 May, 2024
Beware big crack in Princes Highway
A FREQUENT traveler of the Princes Highway has taken it upon themselves to warn residents of a crack in the road in Weerite.
Colac resident Patrick Dowell recently put up a post on Facebook to warn people in Camperdown about the road damage, which is located near the Weerite CFA station.
Mr Dowell said he noticed the crack close to three weeks ago.
“You only sort of see it going the Colac direction – going towards Camperdown, you can’t see it. It sort of drops away,” he said.
“I knew the road was bad there - it had a really soft section in the road.
“When I was coming back from the Camperdown direction, I looked across and seen that it was cracked, and thought ‘I must stop and take photos of it’.
“I put a post up about just to inform the public that it’s dangerous.”
Mr Dowell said it was “not a good situation to have on our highway”.
“If it starts to rain there, it could be a hazard – it could just drop into a big hole, and there could be a big accident there because of it,” he said.
“I wanted to raise awareness of that potential hazard.
“Here and there I’m on the road, so I see a bit of damage at that section of Camperdown, and I’ve done another post for Colac area.
“I’ve just noticed over the years there’s been less and less maintenance on the highway, or roads in general. I just hear of more and more crashes and more and more incidents.”
Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) executive director Barwon South West and Grampians Michael Bailey said DTP works to maintain over 23,000 kilometres of road network in accordance with its Road Management Plan.
“Our crews will be out on site this week to inspect and assess the damage on Princes Highway,” he said.
Mr Dowell alleged the Princes Highway looked to be “poorly maintained”.
“There’s no evidence of a maintenance schedule; they’ve not even marked a hole or parts of damage on the road,” he said.
“I suppose it’s been going on for weeks that damage, or months, and there’s no signs of repair.
“It feels like there’s not a lot of country roads, especially in our region, that are having any major maintenance.
“There’s been pothole repairs, but they’re not fixing the sections of road that keep sinking or have problems in them. It’s a bit disappointing.”
Mr Dowell said governments and DTP staff “should know what their job is”.
“As we all would say – we paid for the registration of our car, we keep our car roadworthy, the roads make our car unroadworthy driving on them, then we get pulled over and harassed about fixing the damage on our cars,” he said.
“I hear from many people – people who have commented on the post, and I hear from people in public, and they all say the same thing.
“It’s a one-side thing.
“We’re made to maintain a roadworthy car, but the road surfaces are not supposed to be roadworthy apparently.”
Mr Dowell said the post he made was not just about highlighting a danger to the community.
“It’s about bringing the standards of our roads up,” he said.
“We can’t just focus on one section of road, like in Melbourne or wherever the money’s going.
“It needs to be brought back into the areas where we have the farmers and the growers and the people in the community supporting these big towns and big cities.
“We need roads to also be good in these areas so we can do our jobs safely.”
Mr Bailey encouraged road users and community members to report concerns about the road network to DTP by calling 13 11 70.