Council & Business
29 May, 2026
Councils advocate for improved bridges
Safer roads and upgrades to historic bridges is the centre of a new State Government push by the Greater Ballarat Alliance of Councils (GBAC), launched this week.
GBAC launched their campaign on Monday, calling for the reinstatement of a long term Country Roads and Bridges program for regional Victoria.
A fusion of Central Goldfields, Pyrenees, City of Ballarat, Hepburn, Golden Plains and Moorabool shire councils, the alliance is seeking funding to preserve and maintain the region’s historic bridges, whilst also making them suitable for heavy vehicles.
GBAC said they are calling on the State Government to secure long term investment to ensure councils don’t divert these costs from other priorities.
“Limited funding places increasing pressure on local infrastructure renewal programs and makes it more difficult for councils to maintain and upgrade ageing road and bridge networks,” they said.
“Ongoing investment from government remains critical to help regional and rural councils manage extensive infrastructure assets, support economic activity and respond to future growth.”
Road condition and maintenence throughout the region has been consistently raised with GBAC, with businesses and primary producers highlighting the impact on freight efficiency and productivity.
“In agricultural areas, roads and bridges
are critical for getting produce from farm
gate to market. When infrastructure is load-limited and unable to accommodate modern freight vehicles, it can create longer travel routes and higher costs for local industry,” they said.
Former president of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association Graham Howell said diversions when travelling with freight throughout the region are a common occurrence due to scattered historic infrastructure.
“If we are over the load limit, we could have to divert 40 or 50 kilometers to get around certain roads,” he said.
“Just recently I was on the Elmhurst-Landsborough road, and there are two 30 tonne bridges on that road ... I would have to turn off at Landsborough to the Pyrenees Highway and then come back and instead of travelling 20 kilometres straight, I would be doing well over 60 kilometres around.”
As for the Central Goldfields, the shire covers a transport network spanning over 1300 kilometres, including 58 kilometres of sealed roads and 750 kilometres of gravel roads. The network is also supported by 85 bridges and 194 culverts.
Mr Howell said some roads in the Central Goldfields Shire present the same issue.
“There is the bridge at Tullaroop. For a farmer there getting livestock from his property on one side of the reservoir to the other, we have to go out to Moolort, into Carisbrook and back around to Majorca which instead of being about six kilometres, it’s more like 26 kilometres to do the round trip,” he said.
“That farmer has to pay extra in freight because that is the only way we can go to get around.”
In recent years, shires have lowered load limits to accommodate for aging infrastructure.
Over 100 of the Pyrenees Shire’s bridges are over 50 years old, many designed to carry the equivalent of a 33-tonne semi truck.
According to GBAC, over 10 million dollars is required for road and bridge upgrades just in the Pyrenees Shire.
“It is definitely getting worse as the bridges and the roads get older,” Mr Howell said.
“There are about 150 bridges in the Pyrenees Shire and there are about 35 that have load limits. Most of them range from either 30 tonne to 45.
“On a 45 limit bridge, you can get a semi over, but the 30 tonne ones, you can’t get a semi over. It doesn’t just affect livestock carriers, it affects anyone using the road, using the road in a heavy vehicle whether they are carting hay or grain, most times a lot of these trucks are carting produce for farmers.”
GBAC said the advocacy is beyond recognising aged road infrastructure across shires, but the implications the management of council road networks presents.
“While each council has different priorities and assets, infrastructure pressures are being experienced across the region, including Central Goldfields Shire,” they said.
“GBAC’s advocacy is not focused on a single bridge or road. It reflects a broader challenge around maintaining and upgrading extensive council-managed road networks. This is particularly difficult for shires like Central Goldfields, which have a comparatively small rate base.”
Mr Howell said the desired outcome for advocates is the cost is not left to GBAC councils.
“The federal and the state governments have got to give more money to the shires,” he said.
Central Goldfields Shire mayor Ben Green agrees.
“The reality is we cannot maintain this critical network without strong, ongoing State Government support,” he said.
“That’s why we are calling on the State Government to reinstate the Country Roads and Bridges Program. Our communities deserve safe roads, and this program is essential to deliver them.”