Cape Town - South Africa has a whopping 25 million potholes in its countrywide roads network, compared to 15 million recorded five years ago.
These eye-watering figures were revealed at the 7th South African Roads Federation (SARF) Regional Conference for Africa which kicked off in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Leading road experts and decision-makers from across the globe are sharing their knowledge at the gathering.
The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral), said the main reason for the state of the country's roads is inadequate maintenance, which “results in a vicious cycle that creates even deeper holes in the pockets of the administering authorities”.
It currently costs between R700 and R1 500/km2 to fix one pothole, depending on its size. The lack of maintenance increases the repair costs by 18 times if a full rehabilitation of a road is deemed necessary, Sanral said.
Former SARF president, Mutshutshu Nxumalo, said while South Africa's road network was one of the country’s greatest assets, a mere 5% was allocated to it from the national fiscus.
“Sanral is doing good work, but they can’t do it on their own. There is an imbalance between the understanding of what needs to be achieved and the political will. We have legislation but the wrong leadership...
“Our roads go through their lifespan without maintenance which eventually leads to bigger problems. Our potholes, specifically, are caused by a delay in the response to fixing them timeously,” Nxumalo said.
Nxumalo said the fallout from inadequate road maintenance was “far-reaching and disastrous”.
It puts public safety at risk, causing the destruction of transport routes, disrupting movement of goods, negatively impacting tourism and resulting in major claims from the Road Accident Fund.
In August, the national Department of Transport launched Operation Vala Zonke, a national campaign aimed at eradicating potholes across the country, with Sanral as the implementing agency.
“The initiative has reported significant success in most provinces in just 10 weeks. As figures come in, Johannesburg has already fixed and filled an impressive 112 699 potholes, North West Province 28 578, Limpopo Province 25 431 and the Free State has 16 540 fewer potholes, thanks to Operation Vala Zonke,” said Sanral.
Arrive Alive (AA) owner and developer, Johan Jonck, said there was a lack of preventative maintenance.
“Whereas our national roads are mostly in excellent condition, it is the local roads where local municipalities have to budget and effectively maintain roads where we find most of the problems.
“It also doesn’t help that our freight rail has deteriorated over the years – forcing more and more cargo onto road freight, putting an additional avoidable burden on our road infrastructure. We find more and more private sector involvement to fill potholes – but the national and local departments of transport is where the main focus needs to be,” added Jonck.
Provincial Transport and Public Works department spokesperson, Jandré Bakker, said thorough planning and hard work, provincial roads are in a good condition.
“We attribute this to our proactive maintenance regime. This regime has various types of work… which ranges from rehabilitation, resurfacing to periodic maintenance, and to replacement of infrastructure in totality. Emergency repairs are also actioned.”
Bekker said the province had completed its 10-year planning cycle in the form of the Road Asset Management Plan (Ramp) which covers the period 2022/23 to 2031/32.
“This does not mean that our road network is in a perfect condition and often priorities would have to be set to fit within the available resources. The province has a vast gravel road network that needs to be maintained as well.
“By maintaining a road you minimise the risk of extensive damage forming which may require more intensive repairs. It is important to note that within a finite pool of resources, one often has to prioritise certain projects based on various factors which includes traffic volumes,” said Bekker.
Bekker said the department spent its complete R1.1 billion received from the Division of Revenue Act (DORA). This included 624 676m² of surfaced roads rehabilitated, 769 740m² square metres of surfaced roads resealed, 89km of gravel roads re- gravelled and 49 305km of gravel roads bladed.
Professor Philip Paige-Green, of the Tshwane University’s engineering department, said there was much more to the issue than just filling potholes.
“There was a study released by the CSIR in 2010 that details the approach we should be taking to deal with potholes. But little of what was proposed has been implemented on our provincial, urban and district roads. It’s simple: if they aren’t fixed properly, they won’t last.”
The conference concludes on Thursday.
Cape Times