Hours-long traffic delays in Melbourne's west as road crews inspect damage to the Princes Freeway

The Victorian Department of Transport has apologised for damage to vehicles and major delays on the Princes Freeway west of Melbourne this morning.

Transcript

00:00A line of headlights stretching into the horizon as one of Victoria's busiest freeways comes to a stop,

00:09leaving drivers stranded in their cars for hours without a toilet in sight.

00:13I did see a truck driver leap out of his cab and nick across the road and I thought,

00:18yep, you've got the truck and the equipment to manage that.

00:21But I was in a full-length corduroy jumpsuit.

00:24On the ground, this was the view facing thousands of furious commuters in bumper-to-bumper traffic

00:29on the Princess Freeway.

00:32Well, I normally get to work at 6.30 in Richmond.

00:35I'm still the Geelong side of Werribee and Google's telling me that I'm going to get to my office in Richmond at 9.07.

00:44The culprit of today's chaos, this exposed expansion joint at a bridge near Werribee Zoo,

00:50which triggered a series of crashes before peak hour, including a truck rollover,

00:55spilling diesel across the freeway.

00:57The transport department today apologising.

01:00We are very fortunate that there has been no fatal or serious injury associated with this

01:04and, as I said, we apologise to all those who are directly impacted.

01:08In the early hours of this morning, maintenance crews were working on the expansion joint.

01:12When they finished, they put down a 200-kilo temporary steel plate so they could reopen the road.

01:19But about an hour after they left, the department says that plate came loose, exposing cars to steel spikes.

01:25We believe it's through human error and subsequently that's caused the damage.

01:30It took hours to reopen the freeway, with crews still welding a new steel plate over the spikes around lunchtime.

01:37The incident is set to renew focus on Melbourne's growth corridors,

01:41where road infrastructure has been a key concern for droves of new residents.

01:45It's putting a lot of demand on the existing assets.

01:48So you do get a lot more demand than it would be initially designed for.

01:53So without that proper routine maintenance, you can expect to see certain failures occurring.

01:58Drivers who had their cars damaged in today's snarl can apply for compensation

02:02as the department investigates how it brought the west to a standstill.