Road maintenance backlog crisis

South Africa will need to find innovative ways of addressing the road maintenance backlog – and the private sector must play its part, Mvikeli Ngcamu, chief director of the Department of Transport's Integrated Transport Planning (ITP) division told delegates at last week’s Road Freight Association convention. While the exact figures are not available, it is estimated that the backlog for road maintenance is around R149 billion. Conservative estimates suggest that South Africa must invest at least R80bn a year to sustain the existing road network. Less than R40 billion is currently spent annually. In addition the country’s road network for the most part is beyond the design lifespan of 20 to 25 years. Ngcamu said dealing with the backlog and moving forward in the building of new roads would require an innovative and out-of-the box approach in which the private sector would feature highly. “I have not come here to speak about e-tolls and I also do not want to raise that debate,” he said, referring to the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) that has seen the government successfully implementing its user-pay system through tolling. “But we have to look at ways of how we can address the state of our roads so that cargo moves freely and optimally. Yes, there has been suggestion and talk about things such as an infrastructure fund or maybe increasing the fuel levy, but the ring-fencing of funds is not on the table in the country and therefore we must talk innovation or else we are going to head into a very bad situation in this country,” he said. “We are reliant on road to move our cargo and our economic hub is far from the port. At the same time we are far from our markets. We cannot change our geography. We have to talk to each other and come up with solutions together.”