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The Johannesburg Roads Agency has several programmes in place to get immediate information on potholes - which increase during the rainy season - and its response time to fix the problem averages three days.
A JRA team at work in the city's CBD
THE non-stop rain over the last couple of days has been enough to drive one around the bend and literally into a hole - a pothole. That is because tar roads are particularly vulnerable to the erosive effects of water, causing the number of potholes forming each day to rise by 70 percent in heavy or continuous downpours.
Conel Mackay, the operations manager for business support and road safety of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), the agency tasked with road maintenance, says heavy rain and overloaded vehicles are the two major contributors to potholes.
"During the rainy season anything from 70 to 100 holes can be reported a day." And with this year's summer season kicking-off with torrential showers, the JRA has had its hands full, shovelling dirt into holes on the one hand and attending to public complaints, on the other.
In February alone the JRA attended to 5 200 potholes, the majority of which were logged by the agency's 20 zap teams, which each care for about 500km² of road. They patrol the city on a daily basis to attend to poor road conditions, faulty traffic signals or defaced road signs.
And in general the agency manages to maintain a steady response time of three days from the time a complaint is logged, Mackay confirms.
Because the JRA is the only official caretaker of city roads, it first has to approve development and service provider upgrades that will affect the roads infrastructure. However, contractors often cut trenches in roads without first undertaking the proper application process. In such instances the JRA often bears the brunt of the bad publicity, on top of carrying the full cost reinstating the road to its previous condition.
Updated news
With the public environment upgrades and Gautrain development taking place across the city, giving residents timeous information on the state of roads has become a priority, Mackay says, and the JRA is embarking on an extensive communications plan, using all available media channels.
The idea is to inform the public of any road works, upgrades or potholes as, when or before these happen. "The information will complement the [existing] traffic reports and will be done on a daily basis."
Talk Radio 702, Lesedi FM and Kaya FM will be targeted and the print media will be used in certain instances to convey information of a more general nature.
The JRA website is also being upgraded to allow more interactive and up-to-date information. Information on work done by private contractors and service providers that affects the road system will be available online, with the exact location and the duration it will take to be completed. This will be updated daily.
But the JRA is also stepping up its enforcement efforts with the help of Johannesburg metro police, with whom it works closely. For example, the possibility of supplying weigh-in-motion facilities to the metro police to help them clamp down on overloaded vehicles is being investigated.
Adopt a route
In the meantime, roads agency employees are showing their commitment to road safety. The agency runs its own internal route adoption programme, whereby each employee on the programme accepts full responsibility for a specific route or routes - usually their regular route to work - inspecting and reporting any fault or problem encountered.
The roadies programme - a community ambassador initiative - is also very successful but requires more involvement. Community road ambassadors volunteer to become the eyes and ears of the JRA. The agency also runs monthly road blitzes in which a particular area is targeted. For this programme the agency relies heavily on the help of community volunteers.
Mackay would like to see more people involved in these and other community initiatives. "Road users have the responsibility of ensuring that their roads are taken care of."
And he urges residents to continue to report road problems through the 24-hour hotline. "Johannesburg communities should own the roads," he believes. To log a problem, send an email to
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or phone Joburg Connect on 011 375 5555.
Pothole facts
The City receives an average of 25 reports of new potholes a day.
Depending on its size, a pothole can cost the City anything from R280 to R1 000 to fill.
In 2007 the City spent R20-million on fixing potholes.
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