The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) at the recent Road Federation regional conference revealed that the country’s roads have approximately 25 million potholes, 67% more than a mere five years ago.
At an estimated cost of between R700-1,500 per pothole for repairs, it could cost from R17.5 billion up to R37.5 billion to fix every single one of these hazards.
If the damage is too extensive and full rehabilitation of the road is necessary, Sanral said the fees are multiplied by 18, pushing up the maximum predicted cost to an astronomical R675 billion.
The roads agency blames this enormous number of potholes on the poor maintenance of administering authorities, reports MyBroadband.
Pothole reporting made easy
In an effort to put an end to the continuous deterioration of the country’s roads, Sanral has launched a Pothole App for Android and iOS devices which citizens can use to report potholes.
If a motorist sees one of the road hazards they can upload a picture to the app as well as real-time location data for easy locating.
“The information then gets assigned to the relevant authority, depending on where the road is, and the maintenance depot responsible for that road attends to fixing the pothole,” said transport minister Fikile Mbalula.
The app will also provide status updates on issues raised using a pothole ticketing system, and Mbalula said that a policy is in place that requires Sanral to fix “any reported potholes within 48 hours.”
Another app launched by the Gauteng Department of Transport, PotholeFixGP, also allows residents to report potholes that are found inside the Gauteng province as well as find out whether the affected road is a municipal, provincial, or national carriageway.
“Potholes reported are then referred to responsible road agencies or municipalities for their attention,” said Gauteng’s transport department.
“Those belonging to the Department will be dealt with by the departmental road maintenance teams.”
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