DA report on potholes crisis: Johannesburg and Durban reaching tipping point

On Tuesday 2 February and Wednesday 3 February, the Democratic Alliance visited the Johannesburg and Durban metropoles respectively, with the purpose of investigating the condition of each city's roads and the infrastructure related to it. Today we present a photographic report on those visits and put forward a series of proposals to help solve the problem.

All the photos accompanying this report, as well as the presentation made to the media are available on the DA's Media Centre (www.damediacentre.co.za). This report should be read in conjunction with those photos.

We undertook the visit for three reasons:

• First, and perhaps most importantly, because the condition of the country's roads are of concern to every commuter and affect all South Africans, directly or indirectly. We rely on them for our safety and as a means to get from once place to another. Both of those factors mean roads are critical to the day-to-day lives of millions of citizens - the DA believes they should be the gateway to opportunity and thus, safe and well maintained.
• Second, because this particular issue is now firmly established in the public mind as cause for serious concern. In the Johannesburg media, the debate around the conditions of that metro's roads in particular is reaching fever point and, in Durban, the situation has been put on the front pages by the recent court application, brought before the High Court, in which a commuter, permanently injured when the taxi she was travelling in hit a pothole and crashed, successfully held the provincial administration liable for the incident.
• Third, because, as Helen Suzman famously stated, the best way to represent the interests of the public is to ‘go and see for yourself' and, in this particular case, the nature of the problem lends itself to on-site inspection.

What the DA found was deeply alarming. It is perfectly clear that, in both cities, years of neglect and poor planning have generated a problem that is as wide spread as it is acute. Outside of major arteries (although a number of these were also severely compromised) there are potholes everywhere and a general degradation of road infrastructure on an enormous scale. Only with urgent action and a carefully thought through plan, can the problem be countered. We are at a tipping point, where we have one of two options: take dramatic and urgent action to arrest the exponential decline, or continue on as normal and risk generating an infrastructure backlog that is impossible to reverse.

What the DA Found

For ease of reference, this report is divided in a number of sections, each one of which is designed to demonstrate a particular aspect of the general infrastructure decline and the extent to which it is now manifesting.

General

The DA photographed over a 100 potholes. We focused only on the worst of the worst. This is an important point because, while this report identifies some of the most dramatic examples, what it does not do is properly convey the general condition of the roads, which, in most cases, was in a state of advanced decline. If potholes themselves had not yet manifested, the tar was stripping away, there was wide spread scarring and significant wear and tear was evident around every corner.

Johannesburg and Durban

The situation in Johannesburg was more acute than it was in Durban, but that is not to suggest that things were far better in KwaZulu-Natal. The difference is relative. That said, in the areas the DA inspected, the problem was widespread and dramatic and the decay was everywhere. Significantly, the various ‘potholes' fell into two distinct categories: those that had occurred naturally - through neglect and time - and those that were the consequence of some or other man made intervention - most commonly, a strip of tar had been removed for repair work and never replaced.

Very often the problem was most serious off the main arteries, those suburban roads that form the greatest proportion of any city's total road network.

Between Johannesburg and Durban, the DA visited the following areas: Parkview, Melville, Dunkeld, Houghton, Forrest Town, Parkhurst, Northcliff, Killarney, Rosebank, Blairgowrie, Greenside, Emmerentia, Peter Place, Westcliff, Durban North, Ntuzuma, Umgeni, Umgeni Heights, Yellow Wood Park, Woodhaven, Austerville, Morningside, KwaMashu and Inanda.

‘Natural' Potholes

These were more numerous than those caused by human intervention and more serious. A natural pothole occurs after a substantial period of time and neglect and, unlike a man-made pothole - which needn't be a reflection of the general condition of the road in which it occurs - more often that not means that there is a serious and fundamental problem with that road's upkeep. Very often the base below the road has been allowed to wash away, because a pothole has not been repaired, which exponentially increases the cost of any rehabilitation, because a larger section of the road needs to be dug up and replaced. In extreme circumstances, the pothole becomes a sinkhole, with the entire road collapsing.

Here one pothole stands out in particular, in Bolton Road, in Rosebank. A major artery, not five minutes go by without, at least, 30 cars passing along it. The pothole is obscured by a bend in the road and every second car hits it. It is deep and severely dangerous, and typifies the problem.

Man Made Potholes

Unfortunately, these too were everywhere. There were those that appeared to be fairly recent, and those that had been left for such a long period of time, they had taken on a natural degradation of their own, no doubt at an exponentially faster pace, because they had been given an initial ‘boost', so to speak. One of the most common forms of this kind of pothole is what I have referred to as a ‘trench' - a strip of tar cut out right across a road, for a pipe to be laid or dug up - only to be left unsealed.

It is significant that, in every photo taken by the DA, not one shows any sign of municipal work -men or women on the job, acting to repair the problem. The problem has become so serious that a number of drive time radio shows have taken to setting up a grid on Google Maps, to identify potholes in Johannesburg. It currently shows over 500.

Missing Manhole Covers

In both Johannesburg and Durban, but particularly in Johannesburg, there were a great many manhole covers missing. These took all shapes and sizes and, often occurred in key interchanges and roads with a great deal of traffic. No doubt the consequence of theft, they constitute a real and serious threat to any vehicle that might hit them.

Leaking Water

On repeated occasions, we witnessed municipal water points simply spewing out what appeared to be a never-ending stream of water down a road or across an intersection; we counted at least ten such examples in a single day. The cost to the city in water wasted must be enormous. Further, endless running water acts to increase the degradation of a pothole or road, wearing away tar and the base. We will be asking parliamentary questions to each of the Water Boards, to try and establish how much water the main metros lose, and the cost, in this regard.

Here it is worth mentioning the pothole in Glenhove Road, just outside Houghton, on the bridge crossing over the M1. Not only is the pothole enormous (a combination of natural decay and then, on top of it, municipal intervention) but, not ten meters away from it, huge amounts of water are actually seeping through the tar itself (as opposed to from a particular water point). That bridge constitutes a very serious public hazard, not only to those cars travelling on it, but to those cars travelling below it on the M1.

Other Decay - Signs, Pavements, Lights Not Working, Traffic Lights Out

There were plenty of other signs of infrastructure degradation: traffic signs collapsing, lamp posts collapsed, street lights not working and pavements left ripped up, or with often with huge holes in them, man made and natural. Of particular concern is the number of traffic lights out on any given day. And here, once again, Johannesburg seemed to experience the problem more dramatically than Durban. Any one of the key local news stations would report up to 15 sets of traffic lights out on any given day, some for days at a time. The DA saw at least seven sets out on the day it was visiting.

Forrest Town

One suburb visited by the DA deserves special mention: Forrest Town in Johannesburg's Northern Suburbs. Home to President Jacob Zuma, it is rife with potholes, leaking water, missing manhole covers and broken signage. Some of the biggest and certainly a great many of the most substantial potholes occurred in this area, a good illustration perhaps, of the fact that the problem is literally on the President's doorstep. We took some pictures of huge potholes within 100 meters of his private house. And that is not the only high profile building to have to deal with the problem. The road outside the American Embassy in Killarney (home to President Mbeki) has two huge potholes; so does the suburb of Houghton (home to Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation).

The Worst 15

From those hundred or so potholes photographed by the DA, we have identified the 15 worst. To do this, we took into account both their location - that is, if they are on a major carriageway or a road with a great deal of traffic - and their size (often a signal of the amount of neglect that caused them in the first place).

The worst 15 are as follows:

1. Bolton Road (Rosebank, Johannesburg): Hidden from oncoming traffic, if you watch down Bolton Road you can see cars hitting it at speed on a regular basis.

2. Riviera Road (Killarney, Johannesburg): A mini sinkhole, across the road from the American Embassy, closer inspection suggests a large part of the road has worn away beneath it.

3. Kenville Road (Umgeni Heights, Durban): With an ANC election poster hanging over it, and on an incredibly steep hill, it has already been the cause of a number of serious accidents.

4. North East Road (KwaMashu Highway, Durban): Riddled with potholes from one end to the other, this entire stretch deserves a mention, on a double lane highway, the risk of serious accidents is acute. [Picture]

5. Glenhove Drive (Killarney, Johannesburg): The biggest one of them all; started out small and then grew and grew. A natural pothole that has become a crater after municipal intervention. We call it, ‘The Big Hole'. Most disturbingly, it is on a bridge over the M1.

6. 7th Street (Parkhurst, Johannesburg): Bigger than a car.

7. Hamilton Avenue (Parkhurst, Johannesburg) A cascade of (public) water flows almost non-stop down this road and, from the top to the bottom, there are a myriad of potholes, each one developing at an exponential rate. 

8. Cowell Road (Forrest Town, Johannesburg): A block or two from the President's private residence, this monster takes up so much of the road one has to go into the oncoming traffic lane to get round it.

9. Kafue Road (Emmerentia, Johannesburg): A tree has started to grow out of it.

10. Dukuzu Road (KwaMashu, Durban): At the bottom of a dip, a road used almost exclusively by taxis, this huge trench is a very serious threat.

11. Thorn Road (Austerville, Durban): A huge, half man-made, half naturally developed scar that takes up a third of the road. The metal water point that sticks out of the middle of it is particularly dangerous.

12. River Street (Killarney, Johannesburg): Another huge pothole, just down the road from the American Embassy.

13. Greenside Road (Emmerentia, Johannesburg): Much like the River Street pothole, no doubt the creation of some long-forgotten municipal intervention, after the rain it resembles a small lake, easily as big as a small car.

14. Woolraad Road (Austerville, Durban): Not strictly a pothole. Just the small matter of a large section of the road itself gone missing.

15. The Valley Road (Westcliff, Johannesburg): A major linking road that runs from Jan Smuts down to Melville, this humdinger is currently protected by a single traffic beacon, and has been for about a month.

How the Problem Occurred

Prior to 1994, money allocated to the provinces for road maintenance and upkeep was effectively ring-fenced. That is, a certain amount of money was set aside specifically for this purpose and could not be used for anything else. It is true that this money was often grossly misallocated, but the principle of a dedicated allocation existed. This usually came from funds derived from the fuel levy and in the form of direct grants.

Post 1994 the system was changed and an equitable share was allocated to each province to be divided up and spent as that province saw fit. The same scenario applied to cities and large metropolitans (which collected their money from rates). No dedicated allocation meant money was spent elsewhere. As roads were not seen as an urgent requirement, money that was traditionally used for this purpose was diverted elsewhere and so a situation was created whereby this key element of our infrastructure was neglected and allowed to deteriorate.

The problem with this kind of neglect, is that the problem increases exponentially. If a road is not properly maintained and problems addressed as and when they occur, the cost of repairing the problem, as it grows, increases exponentially too. And so, the more it is neglected, the harder the problem is to overcome. The estimated total cost of our road infrastructure backlog (on national and provincial roads alone) currently stands at R126 billion. If that problem is to be reversed, we drastically and urgently need to rethink the way in which we allocate our fiscus. The situation in our metros and municipalities is equally problematic, with backlogs estimated in the region of R38 billion. In other words, across all three spheres of government, we face an estimated backlog of around R164 billion. And that underspending, cumulated over years, is now starting to manifest in very real and dangerous terms, for South African commuters.

What the DA Proposes

The DA proposes the following:

• A dedicated road maintenance fund sourced primarily from the fuel levy
• A percentage of toll road profits must go towards community development or to subsidise rural transport
• Mobile weighbridges to regulate and penalise overloading by heavy duty vehicles

A dedicated Fund for Road Maintenance will help to ensure a regular supply of funds to gradually eliminate backlog Nationally and Provincially. This fund will be the prime responsibility of a special Department of Roads and Safety within the Ministry to deal with the backlog and

continued maintenance. R30bn has already been approved as a five year holding strategy to

prevent further deterioration of the road system and address the most critical needs. This leaves a major maintenance and improvement backlog of R96 billion.

The DA will also support and accelerate the government's newly established plan, to dedicate a portion of the income derived from fuel used in each metro, to that metro, and extend this initiative on a phased basis to local municipalities.

The DA will invest an additional R15bn a year for six years, making use of:

• The existing fuel levy, in addition to toll income and other traffic-related income sources, which together currently contribute R26bn to the fiscus each year
• State funding in the form of conditional grants
• Public Private Partnerships
• Concessions
• State-guaranteed money market loans
• Public works programmes as part of poverty relief and job creation projects
• Vehicle licence fees and fines.
• International loans
• A thorough national pavement condition
• To encourage increased use of railways, through a levy on heavy duty vehicles, based on load and route. 

The fundamental problem facing the Treasury right now is how to ensure that money is properly spent on those key elements of our infrastructure that have been neglected for so long. A dedicated fund for road maintenance is a way of ensuring that money is spent in this regard and not simply allocated elsewhere.

We will continue to influence the DoT and the Treasury to increase revenue flows into these infrastructure asset maintenance programmes, in accordance with our alternative budget.

Statement issued by Stuart Farrow, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of transport, February 10 2010

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