We rely on roads for access to work, schools, shops, recreational activities, health care and other services. Roads also play a critical role in the movement of freight and goods across Victoria. VicRoads manages about 24 000 kilometres of arterial roads.

Road networks in poor condition cost the community more, through increased fuel usage, vehicle maintenance costs and travel times. When road surfaces—referred to as road pavements—are in poor condition, they are also more expensive to maintain and repair.

In this audit, we assessed whether Victoria’s road network is being effectively and efficiently maintained. We looked at whether VicRoads’ road pavement maintenance program is soundly based and being efficiently managed to achieve the desired outcomes for the state.

We focused on road pavement because it accounts for most of VicRoads’ spending on road maintenance. We drew our observations on road pavement maintenance practices mainly from head office processes, enabling a statewide perspective. We did not look at road assets owned or managed by local government and private operators (Transurban, Southernway, and ConnectEast).