The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is prioritising pothole repairs in an effort to address the R11.8 billion backlog required to upgrade the city’s 13 599km road network.

To date the agency has repaired 44 350 potholes across the City since the beginning of the 2017/2018 financial year and it has allocated R88 million towards fast tracking repairs, and priority roads scheduled for upgrade.

The road thus far

The agency says that since July 2017, a total of 520 km of roads have been resurfaced, 32.26km upgraded from gravel roads to surfaced roads and a total of 0.3km of open stormwater drains have been converted to underground systems.

“City-wide JRA is faced with an R81.5 billion 10-year backlog to address the city’s aging road infrastructure. R11.8 billion has been allocated for roads, R2 billion for sidewalks, R6.5 billion for bridges and R61.2 billion for dams, catchments and stormwater systems,” notes Transport MMC, Nonhlanhla Makhuba.

“Based on the 2017 JRA roads conditions study, we are faced with a 25% increase in the deterioration of the road network condition, from 89% to 64%. The excessive damage to our road network has resulted in a rise in pothole reports and increased safety concerns,” she adds.

Improving turnaround times and service delivery

The agency says it aims to improve turnaround time by working with communities to increase uptake of its Find & Fix app to log road service related requests.

In an effort to enhance service delivery, the JRA is also in the process of completing the installation of its R53 million asphalt plant. According to the agency the new plant will improve efficiency, production of hot and cold tar mix through improved environmentally friendly processes.

“The plant will increase capacity to JRA’s Road Surfacing Depot and seven regional depots with the supply of asphalt for pothole repairs and road surfacing.’

Splitting the budget

In addition R240 million of the JRA’s R1 213 million 2017/2018 budget, has been allocated towards resurfacing and reconstruction.

“The allocation is split with R140 million for resurfacing and R100 million for reconstruction. A further R295 million has been allocated towards the upgrading of gravel roads,” the agency concludes.