Motorists are well aware that South Africa’s roads are littered with thousands of potholes, an issue that never seems to go away.
Even in areas that benefit from regular maintenance by the local municipality or private companies, a pothole can often be fixed only to reappear a few weeks later, raising questions as to the quality of the repairs being done.
This issue was recently highlighted on 702, where the CEO of the South African Road Federation, Marshall Muthen, was brought on to discuss the problems that cause potholes to form.
Sub-standard conditions
Muthen explained that potholes typically form after intense rain, which means it is a recurring problem that can be hard to stay on top of due to weather conditions.
He went on to say that problems with a road’s surface tend to manifest in the first days after it is opened to the public, as this exposes flaws in the initial construction phase, including poor craftsmanship.
These issues can combine during the wet season when sub-par construction is interrupted by bouts of intense rainfall, leading to poor-quality roads that rapidly decay.
He added that road construction is not meant to be bulletproof, and that there is an allowable safety factor that takes road deterioration into account.
That being said, road design is held to strict regulations by the South African Bureau of Standards and the South African Road Federation.
“All construction and maintenance contractors that operate the road networks are fully aware of the road standards,” he said.
Roadworks projects in South Africa are typically handed out via a tender process, and Muthen suggested that a portion of these jobs may be handed out to less experienced crews, resulting in botched pothole repairs that quickly re-open.
However, he reiterated that this is not an excuse for sub-standard work, and that this is something that should be caught by the road authority paying for the repairs as part of their obligation to taxpayers.
It must also be noted that pothole fixes are intended as a temporary measure to address the immediate danger they present to motorists and to protect the existing surfacing from further decay, said Muthen.
Emergency pothole repairs are done quickly and are not held to the same standards as fully-fledged resurfacing measures, which is why they tend to re-open after extended periods.
Loading ...
