Johannesburg - Following the clarification by the SA National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (Sanral) of the allegations of 25 million potholes in South Africa that made the rounds on social media, the Johannesburg Road Agency stated that they are hard at work trying to fix Joburg’s pothole problem.
Sanral said these claims were made during a presentation at the South African Roads Federation (SARF) Conference held in Cape Town last year.
“The national roads agency would like to clarify that the estimate of 25 million potholes was not derived from Sanral but was presented at an event in which it participated.
“Sanral has reservations about this figure. Given that South Africa has a paved network of 168 000km, 25 million would equate to 149 potholes for every kilometre, which is improbable and unlikely,” said the agency.
JRA spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers told The Star yesterday that they maintain about 14 000km worth of roads, the majority which are tarred, with about 1 000 which have yet to be tarred.
She said that the agency is working on roads that have deteriorated and do not meet the criteria for prioritisation within the available funding and will undergo routine maintenance that will include pothole repairs and re-patching where possible.
“A sufficient budget to maintain, resurface, and reconstruct roads in the short and long term remains a challenge,” she said.
Peters-Scheepers also pointed out that road deterioration is caused by ageing (beyond their 25- to 30-year lifespan, carrying heavy vehicles, poor maintenance and extreme weather).
Meanwhile, Sanral and the Department of Transport have launched a campaign to fix potholes, dubbed “Operation Vala Zonke”.
Sanral was appointed as the campaign’s co-ordinating agency, which included harmonising all data and information on potholes as well as providing the technology and technical knowledge necessary to ensure quality delivery.
Louw Kannemeyer, Sanral’s engineering executive, said that a total of 618 potholes have been reported on Sanral roads to date; 475 of these were in the Northern Region, 72 in the Eastern Region, 60 in the Southern Region, and 11 in the Western Region. “All these were fixed, and those that haven’t are still within the 48-hour window that we had,” said Kannemeyer.
According to Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona, the first six months of the Vala Zonke campaign had shown some success in providing the public with a single pothole reporting app that can be used on all roads in South Africa, providing a consolidated view of all reported potholes, enabling focused engagements between transport departments and relevant authorities, and fixing potholes, but a massive intergovernmental effort would be required to overcome the problem.
Mona said that it is critical to understand the legal mandates of the various branches of government, who is responsible for which roads, and how the pothole-repair campaign is co-ordinated.
“For our part, Sanral has a mandate which covers more than 23 000km of national roads and we can give updates about potholes that have been fixed in the national road network.
“While we are aware of the work that has been and is being done by provincial and municipal roads authorities in fixing potholes on the roads, which they are responsible for, Sanral is not in a position to authoritatively give an account of these,” said Mona.
The Star