Rural City of Wangaratta Council say they will continue to advocate for upgrades to local roads following the recent release of road safety ratings.

The Victorian government released the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) road safety star ratings, which provide an evidence-based assessment on the health of the state’s road network.

The ratings show where the risk of fatal or serious injury is greatest across the road network, with five being the safest and zero the riskiest.

While the Victorian portion of the Hume Freeway was given a respectable 4.8-star rating, roads in and around Wangaratta rarely broke the three-star threshold.

The results were given based on a 2023 road survey.

Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy labelled the one and two-star local roads as “death traps” and hoped they would serve as a wake-up call to the state government.

Rural City of Wangaratta director of community and infrastructure Marcus Goonan said council welcomed the recent ratings which acknowledged the concerns raised by the community on the condition of local roads.

“Council regularly receives feedback from residents about road conditions, and it's important to clarify that the majority of negative comments relate to roads under the management of the Department of Transport and Planning, not council,” he said.

“Council recognises its own responsibility for maintaining the local road network and continues to invest in improvements across the municipality to ensure safer and more reliable infrastructure for all road users.”

Ratings are calculated using a range of risk factors and information, such as average daily traffic; speed limit; number of lanes in each direction; lane width; shoulder width; presence or absence of roadside barriers and audio tactile line markings (rumble strips); gradient and curvature; quality of line-markings; skid resistance; and provisions for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

This information can be overlaid with crash data to understand how infrastructure contributes to crashes and crash outcomes, enabling road authorities to identify potential road works that will reduce risk of crashes and prioritise corrective investment.

The riskiest road within the rural city according to the ratings was the Wangaratta-Whitfield Road at a 1.8-star rating.

Mr Goonan said council had been actively advocating for upgrades to the road managed by DTP and confirmed upcoming works would be completed on a section of the road entering Whitfield this year.

“Council will continue to advocate for further improvements to this vital corridor,” he said.

“We appreciate the state government’s attention to these issues and look forward to ongoing collaboration to deliver better outcomes for our region’s road network.”

Council awarded a $1m contract at its most recent council meeting for reconstruction works to be undertaken on Swan Street.