A report depicting the sad state of South African roads has been handed over to government in an effort to address an ever-increasing concern and to call for more funding for the road transport industry. Commissioned by the Automobile Association of South Africa (AASA), the Road Conditions and Funding 2008 report has painted a very bleak picture, finding more than a quarter of the country’s national and provincial roads are beyond repair, while at least a third need urgent attention. According to Gary Ronald, spokesman for the AASA, the report reviewed the road conditions and funding in South Africa and was prepared by well-known civil engineer and roads specialist, Dr John Sampson, during 2008. “It was a follow-up from a similar report done ten years ago in an effort to compare what our roads and funding look like now compared to then, and the findings are not good. Our roads are in poor and in very poor condition. The findings are extremely worrying.” Ronald said the report had been handed over to various government officials. “The AASA is calling on Government to address funding and increase it to secure the viability of the road transport industry and reduce the number of crashes.” According to the report, South Africa’s roads will need at least R100 billion spent on them to eliminate maintenance backlogs. “Current levels of funding are only a quarter of what is needed to maintain the country’s road network into the future,” said Ronald. The report states that South Africa needs R32bn per annum to keep its roads in good shape, about 1.5% of GDP. Currently only an estimated quarter of this amount is spent annually. And the results of this are clear – while only 22% of roads were in a poor state in 1998, this has increased to more than 60% in 2008. According to Ronald, inadequate road maintenance was just one of the reasons for the increase in traffic accidents, which cost the country millions every year. “Maintaining our roads costs far less per annum than the cost of traffic crashes, unnecessary road reconstruction and losses by the transport industry resulting from poor roads.” “Vast proportions of our road network are so deteriorated that if they are not repaired soon, they will have to be reconstructed completely. “ And, say the experts, the costs of this would be huge, with more than R500 billion of taxpayers' money needed to reconstruct roads on the decaying infrastructure.
