Road Federation Spells Out Six-Point Road Rejuvenation Strategy
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 | |
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Image by JasmicThe South African Road Federation (SARF) has proposed a six-point rejuvenation strategy to reverse the decay in South Africa's crumbling provincial and municipal road infrastructure.
In a statement SARF president Mutshutshu Nxumalo said the ongoing deterioration of South Africa's provincial road network was costing the South African economy and road users billions of rands.
An infrastructure scorecard drawn up by the South African Institution of Civil Engineers (SAICE) earlier this year highlights the problem: paved provincial roads being rated at a D minus and gravel provincial roads at level E.
Moreover, the results of a comprehensive road pavement condition survey carried out by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) on behalf of the National Treasury echoes this assessment.
Nxumalo said approximately 50% of the provincial road network was in a poor to very poor state and despite political promises very little improvement was in evidence.
"Ineffective institutional structures, poor planning and financing, and a lack of management skills, are principally to blame. This is very troubling given the critical importance of South Africa's road network to the economy. The road network is of enormous value, not only as a means for facilitating the efficient transportation of goods and services, but as a capital asset. In fact if our road network was valued as a company it would feature in the Fortune 500 listing.
"Roads are not nice-to-haves, rather they are indispensable to the proper functioning of the economy and as such need to be properly managed and maintained. Unfortunately this has not been the case for several years, which is why much of our provincial and municipal road networks are in such poor condition. Besides the enormous excess user-cost factor, badly maintained roads are a direct cause of accidents, injury and road deaths."
Organisations such as SARF and the Automobile Association (AA) have repeatedly called attention to the deterioration of SA's road network.
Nxumalo said that a systems approach, incorporating good governance, would go a long way to addressing these issues.
He says that SARF rejuvenation strategy is based on:
- A re-examination of institutional structures for road provision
- A planned approach of training and mentoring engineering graduates and the re-introduction of experienced professionals in road authorities
- The reduction or elimination of political interference in the management of the road network
- Improved planning and pro-active maintenance programmes
- More effective use of financial resources
- Improvements aimed at gaining the maximum utilisation from the available infrastructure.
