SA roads heading downhill: SARF
19/05/2006 15:26 PM

Johannesburg - South Africa's road network, conservatively estimated to be worth R550bn, is deteriorating at an alarming rate according to the South African Road Federation (SARF).

SARF says that the under-funding of road maintenance over the past 25 years is the prime cause of the problem.

SARF executive director, and former deputy director general of the department of transport (DoT), Malcolm Mitchell says road users are taxed some R43bn a year of which only R13bn is fed back into the network.

"Courting disaster"

"Road authorities have recently had their budgets significantly increased and SARF believes that the major portion should be allocated to preserving the country's road network. To do otherwise will be courting disaster.

"It is well known that if roads are not repaired timeously costs can rise sevenfold. If we want to reinstate the road network to its condition of 15 years ago it will require additional funding of approximately R10bn annually over and above existing expenditure," Mitchell stated.

Road deterioration is measured on the Visual Condition Index (VCI), a system of road erosion measurement used by the department of transport (DoT).

Based on the last survey conducted by DoT, roads deteriorated from a 'good' in 1988, to 'fair to poor' in 1999.

Maintained condition rating

National roads, managed by the National Roads Agency, maintained their condition rating, as did roads in the Northern Cape, where traffic was low and ground conditions good.

In KwaZulu-Natal, however, traffic was high and ground conditions poor, and as a result roads deteriorated from 'good' to 'poor'.

"All indications point to the general neglect of maintenance on many of the country's roads and any road maintenance that does take place appears to be patchy and haphazard, rather than planned and systematic.

Potholes "a major problem"

"Potholes are now a major problem, causing accidents and widespread damage to vehicles.

"For instance on the N12 between Bloemhof and Christiana the speed limit has had to be reduced to 60km due to the prevalence of potholes and on some sections of the road cars have to slow down to a snail's pace to avoid major damage.

"Similar situations exist on too many other stretches of the country's roads.

"A general rule of thumb on the competency of any road authority is the speed at which potholes are repaired. In more developed countries 72 hours is the norm.

"On major freeways in the USA, 24 hours is the rule. Six to nine months seems to be the norm in South Africa and this can extend to two or even three years," concluded Mitchell.