| Road Name: | Loddon Valley Highway |
| Type: | highway |
| State: | vic |
| Length: | 124 |
| Gazetted: | September 1915 [1] 1946 [2] |
| Route: | B260 |
| Former: | State Route 141 |
| Mapframe: | no |
| Coordinates A: | -35.7631°N 143.9311°W |
| Coordinates B: | -36.7556°N 144.2636°W |
| Pushpin Label Position A: | top |
| Pushpin Label Position B: | bottom |
| Direction A: | North |
| Direction B: | South |
| End A: | Murray Valley Highway |
| End B: | Calder Highway |
| Exits: | Boort–Pyramid Road |
| Region: | Loddon Mallee[3] |
Loddon Valley Highway runs roughly north-west from Bendigo to Kerang. It constitutes part of the direct route from Melbourne to the popular Murray River holiday areas around Swan Hill.
Loddon Valley Highway commences at the intersection with Murray Valley Highway just south of the fringes of Kerang and heads in a southerly direction as a dual-lane single carriageway rural highway, running parallel to the Loddon River a short distance to the west of the road for much of its length. It continues south through Durham Ox until it reaches Serpentine, where it veers more to the south-east away from the river course, passing through the hills around Eaglehawk on the outskirts of Greater Bendigo, before it eventually terminates at the intersection with Calder Highway in Ironbark, in the north-western suburbs of Bendigo.
Within Victoria, the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1912[4] through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the establishment of the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) and their ability to declare Main Roads, taking responsibility for the management, construction and care of the state's major roads from local municipalities. Bendigo-Serpentine Road was declared a Main Road from Bendigo to Yarraberb on 20 September 1915, and Loddon Valley Road from Kerang through Durham Ox to Serpentine was declared a Main Road in the 1937/38 financial year.[5]
The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[6] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board. Loddon Valley Highway was declared a State Highway in 1946, from Kerang via Serpentine to Bendigo, subsuming the original declarations of Loddon Valley Road and Bendigo-Serpentine Road as Main Roads.
Loddon Valley Highway was signed as State Route 141 between Kerang and Bendigo in 1986; with Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, this was replaced by route B260.
The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[7] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Loddon Valley Highway (Arterial #6630), beginning at Murray Valley Highway at Kerang and ending at Calder Highway in Ironbark, Bendigo.[8]