Joburg roads are getting worse – but potholes are getting filled
Over the last financial year the Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) received 34,817 requests to repair potholes, of which 34,551 repairs were carried out.
This is according to the agency’s latest assessment of Joburg’s roads network published on Thursday.
“The remaining 266 unresolved requests were carried over to the current financial year and were addressed in July 2017,” the JRA said.
“JRA maintenance teams across the seven regions have shown great improvement in addressing pothole backlogs with a total of 29,496 potholes repairs carried out within 30 days at a resolution rate of 84.72%.
“The 2016/2017 financial year saw R22,125,781.37 invested in public safety to ensure repairs of potholes.
“Since July 2017 up until 17 October 2017, JRA spent R199,632.23 on the repairs of potholes across the city. A total of 5,603 potholes repair requests were received and 4,750 had been repaired, with the outstanding 853 scheduled for repairs.”
Roads
Despite the maintenance and repairs, the report shows that Joburg’s roads are deteriorating.
In comparison to 2013’s results, the assessment indicates that ‘very good’ and ‘good’ surfaced roads have decreased from 52% to 45% in the city, while ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ roads have increased from 27% to 32%.
72% of gravel roads are in a poor or very poor condition.
“In terms of engineering standards, the roads condition index across the city has decreased from 89% in 2013 to 64% at present, this indicates a 25% increase in the deterioration of the road network condition,” said JRA Acting Managing Director, Goodwill Mbatha.
“The study indicates roads are still deteriorating and present funding allocated is inadequate to address the rate of deterioration. Annual budgets therefore, require a greater fiscal investment to reverse the deterioration of roads and ensure a safe road network.”
Johannesburg’s road network is at present faced with a R7.1 billion backlog of which road resurfacing requires R4.26 billion and reconstruction R2.84 billion.
The cost per kilometre for reconstruction is R4 million and R1 million for surfacing, the JRA said.
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