The Wimmera's poor subsoil conditions will be the focus of a renewed Horsham Rural City Council request for extra road funding.
Council will lobby the Victorian Grants Commission to review the formula for assessing the contribution to councils for the local roads component of the annual financial assistance grants.
The argument is that compared to other parts of the state, the Wimmera's roads have shorter lives, and therefore increased costs of maintenance and renewal.
Mayor Ian Ross said the soil composition that made the Wimmera-Mallee region such fertile farmland had a negative effect when it came to road building.
"Known colloquially as the 'Wimmera Wave', a band of moisture-absorbing reactive clay runs across the region, starting at Dadswells Bridge and spanning across the West Wimmera," Cr Ross said.
"Our subsoil is so absorbent, that it swells and shrinks with the seasons and it never returns to quite the same shape.
"This is one of the major reasons that we see quite a lot of deterioration on our roads, especially with the high number of freight vehicles using these roads," he said.
HRCC has asset management data to support its submission. It uses an index to show the impact of highly reactive clay soils on the usable life of roads, and the associated extra costs to council.
An independent report has shown that the lifespan of roads in different parts of Victoria can vary by as much as 450 per cent – and Horsham is at the lowest end of this range.
The grants commission supports the state's 79 councils to deliver vital services to their communities based on their local priorities, ranging from recreation and culture to community services and maintenance of local roads.
HRCC made a similar proposal to the commission in 2014, but this was not successful in securing additional funding for the municipality's roads.
