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