Royal HaskoningDHV calls for drastic road maintenance plan

Engineering consultancy firm, Royal HaskoningDHV South Africa, has become the latest to voice its concern over the rapidly deteriorating condition of the country’s roads heading in the festive season.

In a statement, the origination said a plan of action needs to be implemented following a report last week that the amount of potholes on South Africa’s roads has increased by ten million to 25 million over the last five years.

What needs to be done?

“Government should have a cohesive and integrated infrastructure master plan in place — whether that takes the form of the current National Development Plan (NDP) or even a newly updated initiative,” the mentioned statement read.

“A key aspect of this plan should seek to create greater cohesion among South Africa’s road, rail and ports infrastructure in order to drive up efficiencies, and protect the state of our roads.”

It added that the announcement made regarding privatisation by Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, during his recent mini-budget speech especially regarding rail transport, would go a long away to prevent the country’s roads from cracking further as a result of the myriad of trucks using it every day.

Less trucking

“Roads need to be continuously and adequately maintained to prevent what is known as porosity from infiltrating and deteriorating the road surface,” it said.

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“[Privatisation] is a step in the right direction and it will not only improve the efficiency of South Africa’s logistics sector, but it will potentially take thousands of trucks off our roads and thereby ensure that there is less wear and tear, and, ultimately, fewer potholes.”

Skills outweigh challenges

It also called upon the implementing of a more rigorous maintenance programme in order to keep not only the condition of the roads in check, but also to assure the safety of motorists in the long-term.

“Roads need to be continuously and adequately maintained to prevent what is known as porosity from infiltrating and deteriorating the road surface. Over time, every road naturally becomes more porous with use,” it said.

“Regular and proper maintenance should go a long way in reducing this porosity from escalating into potholes. This maintenance needs to be consistent to ensure that potholes are limited.”

Despite admitting that to challenges facing the upkeep of the country’s roads and supposed lack of the funds, Royal HaskoningDHV added that, “the know-how and tools exist to improve the state of our roads and to ensure that they keep our economy ticking over”.

“We can reduce the number of potholes on our roads, and make our roads more car-worthy, if we collectively come together and seek to solve this problem.”