Pothole problems plague Randpark Ridge roads
RANDPARK RIDGE – Residents of Randpark Ridge have petitioned the Johannesburg Roads Agency to address their neighbourhood's pothole concerns.
Residents of Randpark Ridge are growing increasingly concerned about the state of disrepair of roads in their neighbourhood.
Concerned resident Beverley Hermanson said that the pothole problems have caused many to dodge them in their cars, so much so that they drive into oncoming traffic.
“It’s becoming really dangerous.
“I stay in Seder Street in Randpark Ridge, which gives us access to Beyers Naudé Drive. It’s an extremely busy road. For years now, JRA has been simply patching the potholes. It’s become a road of patches. And patching does not work. We need the road to be completely resurfaced as they did with Molope Road.”
In August 2020, the Randpark Ridge Village Association put together a petition that a number of residents signed to complain about the state of the road to the communities ward councillors and the Johannesburg Roads Agency.
The RRVA’s Donné Hutchinson said, “We have numerous logged references that date back to February last year with the JRA on the issue, and we have had no feedback since. On Flamboyant Street, there are over 30 potholes in one small section. The issue is very bad.”
The JRA said in a statement on 1 September 2020 that issues regarding the backlog of service delivery were compounded by Covid-19-related challenges. They said that the procurement process for raw materials is currently being accelerated and once finalised, production would resume towards the end of September with an increased capacity.
The JRA’s Sanele Zondi said, “Given our backlog accumulated over the levels 5–3 nationwide lockdown period, the JRA has an estimated 6 000 service delivery requests that pertain to fixing of potholes. On average, there are approximately 48 000 potholes. As a result, we have developed a programme which commenced on 3 November last year to address the backlog of pothole repairs, reinstatements and the cleaning of stormwater kerb inlets.
“We have procured the services of emerging contractors to supplement our in-house teams with the aim to fast-track road repairs and other road maintenance work. We aim to focus on three regions per week.”
