Regional Roads Victoria maintenance works scheduled to take place across the Wimmera-Mallee this summer will aim to tackle a challenge largely limited to the state’s north-west.

Regional Roads Victoria (RRV) Western Region Director, Mal Kersting, said the soil composition that makes the Wimmera-Mallee region such fertile farmland has the opposite effect when it comes to road building.

“The issue with the soil type in the Wimmera is that it is so absorbent, that it swells and shrinks with the seasons and it never returns to quite the same shape,” Mr Kersting said.

“As many drivers can attest, this can cause issues with pavement surfaces on the roads and it is one of the major reasons that we see quite a lot of cracking and undulations occurring on roads around the Wimmera region, especially when you factor in the number of freight vehicles which travel these roads.”

Known colloquially as the ‘Wimmera Wave’, a band of moisture-absorbing reactive clay runs across the region, starting at Dadswells Bridge and stretching to Nhill, causing headaches for engineers and maintenance contractors.

To combat the clay’s unique properties, RRV undertakes regular proactive maintenance across the Wimmera region, repairing and rehabilitating road surfaces in order to extend their lifespan.

“Due to this issue, roads in the Wimmera can tend to have a slightly shorter lifespan than those in other areas of the state, which is why we’re targeting major highways around that region as part of our upcoming maintenance program,” Mr Kersting said.

“The Wimmera’s primary producers play such an important role in western Victoria’s economy, which is why it’s vital that we provide them with the best possible connections to domestic and international trade markets.”

While the issue of the reactive clay soil type is not unique to the Wimmera region, also occurring across other low-lying floodplains, the issue is more prevalent across the state’s north-west.

RRV will carry out more than 15 kilometres of rehabilitation and repairs across the Wimmera over the coming months, targeting areas along the Wimmera, Western and Borung Highways as part of a record investment in rural and regional roads across the state.