Rising costs and funding gaps are pressuring WA councils as they try to preserve and upgrade local roads.
According to the latest Local Government Road Assets and Expenditure Report (PDF) – prepared by WALGA with support from the WA Local Government Grants Commission – the total replacement value of local government roads in WA now exceeds $40.46 billion.
However, just 52.9 per cent of that value remains, based on national asset management measures.
In 2023-24, local governments spent $1.034 billion on roads and bridges. Nearly half of this ($512.1 million) came from their own coffers, marking the first time local contributions topped half of total road spend, excluding flood repairs.
This increased effort was not enough to keep pace with preservation needs.
The shortfall between actual preservation spending and what was needed to maintain current conditions grew to $337.9 million – up $80.8 million from the year before. This came despite local government preservation spend rising to $752.5 million.
Across WA, councils only met 69 per cent of preservation needs, with wide regional disparities: the Pilbara achieved 99.1 per cent, while the Wheatbelt South met just 16.3 per cent.
While overall expenditure increased 11.7 per cent over five years, funding sources shifted. State contributions fell by $30.3 million in 2023-24, largely due to a drop in flood damage reinstatement. Federal support held steady, bolstered by Roads to Recovery and Black Spot programs and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.
Infrastructure ageing remains a concern.
Sealed roads require renewal at 1.5 per cent of replacement value annually, but actual renewal in 2023-24 was just 0.88 per cent, rising to 0.97 per cent when including flood repairs. The gap suggests gradual asset decline unless investment lifts.
WA’s road maintenance challenge is amplified by geography: it has 23.3 people per kilometre of local road, compared with 57.2 in NSW.
Councils are responsible for 86.7 per cent of the State’s public road network – 127,952 kilometres, of which 67.4 per cent are unsealed.
Regions like the Gascoyne and Wheatbelt South face the sharpest constraints, with councils needing to spend over 120 per cent of their estimated revenue capacity to meet preservation needs. By contrast, metropolitan councils (with higher revenue bases) generally exceed required preservation effort.
Despite these pressures, local governments spent more than $245 million on upgrades and expansions last year, helping to service new developments and traffic. However, WALGA warns that without better funding alignment, maintaining road condition across the State will remain an uphill battle.
