Betty Moleya
Pretoria - The estimated cost of building, refurbishing and reconstructing 6 500km of the provincial road network in the City of Tshwane is a whopping R10 billion.
This figure was given by the MMC for roads and transport Dikeledi Selowa on Saturday, at a Smart Mobility Weekend Campaign in Soshanguve’s Block KK.
She said: “The City of Tshwane took over Bronkhorstspruit in Kungwini Local municipality when it collapsed, meaning the budget that we had was now stretched to much larger parts of the city.
“There is a lot of money that needs to be put in to ensure that we have good roads.”
Over the past few days, the City launched a campaign to disconnect rendered services to companies not paying for municipal services, with some of those companies having to pay off their debt to have their utilities reconnected, providing relief to the City’s cash-flow.
“With those owing the City paying their debts, more money can be allocated (to infrastructure). A lot of roads in the city need a total upgrade, with public main roads being prioritised followed by inner-city roads in the residential areas.
“Roads that are being prioritised are the outer roads which are being used daily by commuters from all the communities. They are all connector roads,” the MMC said.
Gauteng roads and transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo said to avoid shoddy work on maintaining the roads, they have partnered with the University of Pretoria’s engineering faculty to do overall quality assurance.
“There is a lab in our department in Koedoespoort, and the university will look at the material that we use, and the methods used to patch the roads.
“The scale and magnitude of the problem is huge on the provincial and local roads. They are made worse by heavy rainfalls and repetitive shoddy work,” Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo said some roads were old and in need of rehabilitation, as everything has a lifespan and can be effective only to a certain point.
An app was being finalised, which provincial residents can use to report the location of potholes and pressure points. “This is being done so that we can respond directly to the people. We are improving and strengthening our efforts in the mobility of people and goods,” the MEC said.
The Smart Mobility Weekends are primarily aimed at ensuring that public roads in Gauteng are maintained to acceptable standards, and to allow for easy movement of people and goods.
The campaign was started in April, 2021. The campaign has been undertaken jointly with municipalities, and seeks to build partnerships to seamlessly enhance road-maintenance programmes for provincial and local networks.
Mamabolo said the campaign will also create job opportunities for young people through the Expanded Public Works Programme.
Activities in Soshanguve in the two-day campaign included grass-cutting, patching of potholes, marking the roads, installing signage, and fixing traffic lights.
Pretoria News