Government to pilot ‘nanotechnology’ to fix collapsing roads in South Africa
The Department of Transport says that it will launch a pilot programme in the North West province to use “nanotechnology” to reinforce rural roads in the province.
In what the department called “a groundbreaking step”, the ministry committed to pilot the application of nano-technology on rural roads, which would reinforce road surfaces and significantly reduce water seepage.
The provincial government has been tasked with identifying suitable roads to commence the pilot programme.
While the use of the term “nanotechnology” typically conjures up images of micro-robots and other tropes in science fiction, the term has a real-world application in the innovative use of chemical reactions and processes to reinforce road surfaces.
According to research from the University of Pretoria, the products traditionally used to build or treat roads in the country can substantially be improved – in terms of strength properties and resistance to environmental factors – through the addition of applicable “nanotechnology modifiers”.
“A combination of modified existing technologies is recommended to partially restore severely compromised road surfacings, especially applicable to secondary and tertiary urban road networks.
“The implementation of the recommended restoration programmes can go a long way towards road asset preservation while simultaneously addressing the urgent need for rapid employment generation,” the researchers said.
The researchers said that many materials and processes – such as nano-silanes, hydrophobicity, nano-polymers and new-age (Nano) modified emulsions (NME) – have been used for decades (if not centuries) to protect buildings from adverse weather conditions, but these are relatively new in the road industry.
However, studies have shown that NME nanotechnology solutions can extend the life of roads (reducing the need to provision more) and reduce the damage caused by overloading – which is a very big problem in South Africa.
While the department did not detail the exact nature of the pilot, the dire need for South Africa to bolster and rehabilitate its road infrastructure is clear.
South Africa’s provincial and municipal roads are in an abysmal state, riddled with potholes, and crumbling due to a severe lack of maintenance over the last decade.
While there are many reasons for this, the collapse of road infrastructure has been primarily laid at the feet of municipalities which have simply failed to do the work.
Another large contributor to the problem is the collapse of the country’s rail infrastructure – neglected and stripped bare by criminals – forcing much of South Africa’s freight from rail to road.
The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) published its 2022 Infrastructure Report Card in November last year, painting a bleak picture of the state of roads, among other infrastructure in the country.
While it graded the country’s National roads quite highly – a B+, or suitable for the country’s needs – this is largely due to these roads being under the purview of national roads agency, Sanral, which has a comprehensive road maintenance regimen.
In this light, the department also announced two additional initiatives in the province directly tied to improving the roads – including intensifying the rollout of “Operation Valazonke” (the government’s national pothole initiative), and transferring more roads to Sanral.
The latter is part of the government’s wider move to take the maintenance of South Africa’s key roads out of the hands of municipalities – which have failed at keeping them healthy – and moving them to the far more capable roads agency.
“The province would furnish a comprehensive list of strategic roads marked for transfer to Sanral. These roads would be officially gazetted as national roads and effectively maintained by Sanral. Additionally, the list would include rural roads intended for block paving, providing cost estimates and indicating funding availability,” the department said.
Read: Big changes coming for roads in South Africa – including 2m sidewalks and bicycle lanes
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