Locals are so frustrated with the dangerous potholes of a highway that they threaten to close it down and leave warning signs for ‘Danholes’, leaving no doubt who they blame for the crumbling infrastructure.
Dean Kruger, a local farmer, shared photos of the huge potholes in the Melba Highway, just north of the town of Glenburn in northeastern Victoria.
“This has to be one of the worst stretches of road in Victoria,” he said as the camera showed the worn tarmac and warning signs telling motorists there was a “rough road surface” and to “reduce speed.”
They’re not pits, these are craters,” Kruger told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.
‘People say ‘it’s just pits’. It’s not ‘just potholes’, this is a deadly dangerous road and it’s not the people of Spring Street (Victorian Parliament) who are affected, it’s the local CFA members who are the first to respond to the car accident.
Glenburn farmer Dean has posted images of large potholes in the local Melba Highway
“It’s the poor family that lives next to this road that comes down when they hear the blow and they have to deal with that.
“You’re talking about young parents. You’re talking about the elderly who have to deal with these gruesome scenes.’
Mr Kruger said the nearest ambulance to the stretch of motorway between Glenburn and Yea, where there had been ‘several fatalities’, was 25 minutes away.and the nearest hospital was an hour away.
He said he felt physically ill standing at the roadside watching phone calls every few minutes due to the state of the road.
“What’s happening is these cars are going on at 40km and the trucks aren’t slowing down,” he said.
“I’ve seen trucks nearly clear multiple rows of cars that had literally come to a stop trying to get through these potholes.”
“The trucks slow down to about 80 and then swerve to the other side of the road where they turn into the other lane.”
“There are two potholes within 50 yards of each other that run the entire southbound track.”
Dean has begun posting his own warning signs on the crumbling Melba Highway in central Victoria,
‘The problem is the signage says ‘roadworks slow 40km’.
“If they don’t see road crews, they say, ‘What am I slowing down for?’
Mr Kruger said the highway and other regional roads have been in a terrible state for “at least three years”.
“There was a landslide three years ago where rocks came down on the emergency stop lane that has been there for three years,” he said.
“It just has one of those arrow signs that they do best.”
The annoyed farmer has taken matters into his own hands by putting up his own signs read ‘Danholes ahead’, ‘Caution Dan punctuation zone ahead’ and ‘Caution potholes sponsored by Danyears’.
“It was all I could do,” he said.
“I need to do something about this, it needs to get on people’s radar.”
He said a Vic Roads employee took down the first set of signs, but he had plenty of replacements and the community was right behind him with even more drastic measures in the works.
Dean says Vic Roads staff have come out to take down his signs but he has a lot more to fight a ‘war of attrition’
Mr Kruger claimed that the potholes in the Melba Highway were filled in ‘cheaply’.
“They don’t use qualified engineer-based road surfacing companies,” he said.
“They’ve just done a bit south of Glenburn and in two months the road is abysmal, so they’re not doing the subs well.
“They walk around with bags of fast pothole filler and put it in and think it’s done, but it’s not.
Regional Roads Victoria has committed $79 million to road maintenance. That’s going to cover a few witch hats.”
A spokesman for the Victorian government told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that the roads have been badly damaged by last year’s flooding in “one of the wettest years in Victoria’s history”.
“We will continue to repair unprecedented damage to our road network,” the spokesman said.
“We have already committed $165 million to carry out emergency flood repairs, and a further $770 million will be spent on maintaining our roads over the next 12 months as part of our ongoing investment in maintaining Victoria’s road assets.”
‘The road is made up of surrounding soil. It’s not a flood. It’s been poorly maintained and built from the start,” Mr. Kruger.
“Over the next two weeks we will have a community meeting about organizing a protest and closing that part of the road on a Friday,” Kruger said, claiming the councilor’s full support.
“We will get Victoria Police involved so we get road management.
“This is about road safety, this is about lives.”
Facebook groups have been set up by local residents complaining about the state of the Melba Highway and other roads in the region.
Comedian Simon Lance posted terrifying footage of a speeding in the dark of night hitting huge potholes in the Melba Highway and jumping before the driver hits the brakes hard.
“Ohhh… man, that’s dangerous,” exclaims Mr. Lance.
“That guy just damaged his car. I’d better go see if he needs help.’
Lance, who was once married to Melbourne gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson, said he was also devastated.
‘I damaged my car. I had electrical problems,” he said.
“My car went into limp mode and it wouldn’t drive. I was with the mechanic for three days until they found out.
“A friend of the family also hit these potholes in her wheel and even broke her wheel.”
“If you do 100 and you don’t see them, that’s definitely dangerous.”
We are not in a third world country. This has been over a year, it’s f**king ridiculous.’
The local state’s Liberal MP Cindy McLeish told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that there were long stretches of road that were “very dangerous” in her electorate.
“It’s downright shocking. It’s been bad for years and the rain has made it worse,” she said.
Local residents say Victoria’s Melba highway is riddled with dangerous potholes that damage cars
“The area we’re talking about, from Yea to Mansfield, is a free highway, so it’s the Melba Highway that’s really, really bad, then it comes out into the Goulburn Valley and then the Maroondah Highway to Mansfield.”
“There are stretches 20 or 30 meters long where the road surface has deteriorated, then there are 10 meters where it has almost sunk and there are potholes everywhere.
“The surfaces are cracking, there are crumbling shoulders.”
She said cars were often forced to make roadside repairs.
“What is very common is seeing cars on the side of the road, changing tires or having damaged rims with the RACV or tow trucks, especially during busy tourist times,” she said.
“They (tourists) are not used to avoiding the potholes, while the locals are used to knowing that their roads are in bad shape.
“That’s all dangerous because if you hit a pothole you could lose control of the vehicle.”
Ms McLeish said she can’t walk down the street without someone telling her about the poor state of the roads and that it wasn’t always locals who traveled from eastern Melbourne to the Mt Bulla and Mt Hotham ski areas.
She has raised the issue many times in Parliament and has tried to speak directly to the Andrews government on the issue.
“Over the years I have written to several ministers about roads and usually they say that we invest so much in Victoria or Northern Victoria over these five years or however many years and all roads are assessed as a priority,” she said.
“The government does say there isn’t enough money but I’d bet if regional roads or Victoria roads had the amount of money earmarked for the removal of a level crossing they could make a huge difference.
“There’s some money and you choose where to put that money and you don’t choose to fix the dire state of Victoria’s regional roads.”
Mrs. McLeish has even started a petition to Victoria’s Legislative Assembly to get the roads repaired in her regions, which had more than 1,500 signatures by Thursday afternoon.