The programme formed part of its response plan to a Visual Condition Index conducted last year which assessed the state of the city’s road network.
“The JRA has introduced a structured approach to road management that prioritises the preservation of existing infrastructure, keeping it in good condition and not allowing it to deteriorate to poor condition,” said the roads agency’s managing director Skhumbuzo Macozoma.
According to the roads agency, the programme required R1 billion and was adequately funded.
During the 2013/14 financial year R140 million was spent on roads, and the budget for 2014/15 was R190 million.
The road resurfacing was an ongoing programme and formed part of the City of Joburg’s continued commitment to investing in and improving the road network.
The roads agency was also finalising city-wide bridge inspections as part of the bridge repairs programme, which also formed part of the response plan.
This year, R65 million was budgeted for bridge expansion joints and overtopping of bridges in Soweto, and construction of the new Naledi Bridge.
During the roads agency’s announcement of plans to repair the roads earlier this year, Macozoma said rehabilitation and reconstruction would target roads that were poor and very poor.
“What we are going to do there is dig up the roads that are gone… and reconstruct them. If we find that some layers are still okay, we going to dig up one or two layers and fix them.”
However, the DA was concerned that estimated costs of road repairs could be higher than the city council had projected.
DA councillor Tyrell Meyers said the city council had indicated that it would cost at least R5.8 billion to repair the city’s roads.
However, the DA believed this number may be bigger, as many of the city’s poor and very poor roads may need to be replaced entirely.
According to Meyers, the roads agency’s fourth quarter report revealed that 27 percent of roads ranked poor and very poor.
“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,” said Meyers.
