The eThekwini Municipality in Durban will conduct a three-month assessment of its paved road network from September this year.
“To achieve sustainability on our road networks we must ensure proper maintenance. Keeping our roads in good condition will also increase road safety,” said the chairperson of the Human Settlements and Infrastructure Committee at eThekwini Municipality, Mondli Mthembu.
According to city spokesperson, Silindile Maluleka, the assessment will be carried out by the city’s Engineering Unit Roads Provision Department and will analyse the life cycle of the 8 000-kilometre road network. This will allow analysts to predict when maintenance needs to be done before it deteriorates to a state where it needs to be replaced, according to city spokesperson, Silindile Maluleka.
“Assessments will be conducted during the day by trained and experienced road assessors travelling in clearly marked vehicles at speeds between 20 to 40 kilometres per hour,” said deputy head of the Roads Provision Department, Dave Thomas.
The data recorded will be used to calculate the Visual Condition Index (VCI) which ranges between 0 and 100, where 0 represents poor conditions and 100 represents very good conditions.
