DA Councillor Tyrell Meyers and spokesperson on Roads in the City of Johannesburg Municipality said on Tuesday that the City of Johannesburg has admitted that it will cost at least R5.8 billion to repair the city’s roads.
The DA believes this number may be bigger, as many of the city’s “poor” and “very poor” roads may need to be replaced entirely. At least 27 per cent of Johannesburg’s roads are ranked “poor” or “very poor” by the city’s own admission.
These figures were revealed by the Johannesburg Roads Agency in the fourth quarter report to the Transport Section 79 committee on the state of the city’s 10 552km paved road network.
According to Meyers “The report revealed that 34 per cent of the city’s roads are considered “Very Good” , 18 per cent “Good”, 21 per cent “Fair”, 21 per cent “Poor” and 6 per cent “Very Poor”.
“These figures will change on an annual basis, as the road network continues to age. It costs far less to maintain a road than to build one, and the City of Johannesburg’s failure to maintain roads is the reason that it now faces this monumental repair backlog.”
It’s said the new roads will cost the people of Johannesburg R3m per km.
Meyers added “Where the DA governs, roads are maintained while they are still “Good” or “Fair” so as to prevent their reaching a poor or very poor condition.
“The DA administration is clearly what the City of Johannesburg needs.”
