Five hundred extra kilometres of wire rope safety barriers will be rolled out along Victoria's rural roads after they proved a successful safety measure last year.

This will bring the total length of wire rope barriers throughout the state to 2000 kilometres in 2019 - about the distance from Melbourne’s CBD to Rockhampton.

Peter Tzamouranis's life was saved, along with the lives of two people travelling in oncoming direction, when he crashed his car into a wire rope barrier on Melba Highway after he fell asleep at the wheel.. Credit:Eddie Jim

“The evidence clearly tells us that they are saving lives,” said new Minister for Road Safety Jaala Pulford.

“We’re going to stay the course because what we are doing now is working,” she said.