R88 million has been allocated to tackle potholes in the City of Johannesburg as part of an intervention to address the city’s enormous pothole repair backlog.

“We are declaring war on potholes and prioritising the repair of failing road surfaces,” managing director at the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Sean Phillips, said. “As a priority service delivery project, R88 million has been allocated to the JRA from the city’s 2016/17 adjustment budget to fast track the process.”

Phillips said a nine point plan regarding road infrastructure rehabilitation had been devised, and that the JRA would prioritise this in order to foster 5% economic growth.

He explained that every two years, a city-wide inspection would be carried out in accordance with the use of the JRA’s Visual Condition Index (VCI) criteria. “This would be done in order to enable the scientific prioritisation of roads for reconstruction and resurfacing,” Phillips said.

According to the JRA, the 2017 city-wide VCI inspection indicates that 40% of the city’s roads are in very good condition, 15% in a good condition, 15% in a fair condition, 14% in a poor condition and 15% in a very poor condition.

The JRA said that through its integrated citizen communications channels, 37,450 potholes were reported between April 2015 and February 2017, of which 32,740 have been resolved. This indicates an 87.4% resolution rate. However, the JRA said that time taken to repair potholes was not yet up to scratch, and that it was working on improving the turn-around time for the repairing of potholes.

The agency said that the following interventions have been put in place to address the current pothole repair backlogs:

• Additional funding has been provided to the JRA in the 2016/17 adjustment budget. This includes:
• R60 million for materials and equipment for pothole repairs and other types of road maintenance
• R28 million to start addressing the 40% staff shortage in the road maintenance teams

• A contractor has been appointed to assist with repair of potholes while additional staff are being recruited
• Pot-hole repair teams are working overtime to tackle the backlog, including on weekends

The JRA said that it must be noted that pothole repairs are a short term fix to ensure the safety of all road users, while resurfacing and/or reconstruction of roads remain the long term solutions to improving the condition of the road network.

The JRA said that as an interim solution, roads that have deteriorated but do not meet the VCI criteria for prioritisation within the available funding will undergo routine maintenance. “This will include pothole repairs and deep patching where possible, until roads are scheduled and budgeted for resurfacing or reconstruction,” the agency said.

Mayoral committee member Nonhlanhla Makhuba has previously indicated that there is an estimated R3.5 billion backlog for road surfacing and a R2.3 billion backlog for roads reconstruction.

“While the current budget allocation for resurfacing and reconstruction does not fully address these backlogs, it is the intention of the city to gradually increase the budgets for these activities over time,” she said.