The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 25

TECHNOLOGY
shown an increase in ‘good’ and
‘very good’ sections.
“A slight improvement in the
paved provincial network score is
due to the shifting from ‘fair–good’
in 2011 to ‘good–very good’ in
Gauteng. Over 90% of sections in
the Western Cape are either ‘fair’,
‘good’ or ‘very good’, maintaining
their standard. However, the
condition in other provinces remains
precarious or is deteriorating. There
is a risk of further deterioration
due to vehicle overloading, poor
maintenance, and the reduction
of skilled personnel in provincial
departments.
“Regarding municipal roads, data
on asset management is difficult to
come by, even for municipalities
that might have sound practices
in place for their road systems.
A particular issue is the difficulty
in discovering to what extent
monitoring is conducted and, if it
is, to what extent this is used for
effective asset management.
“South African gravel roads
constitute 75% of the road network.
There has been some improvement
in the Western Cape, contrasted
with extraordinary deterioration in
the North West Province. Due to
neglect, gravel roads are generally
in a very unhealthy condition, with
between just 2% and 12% in the
‘good’ to ‘very good’ condition,
depending on the province. By
contrast, the ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’
condition applies to 40% to 90% of
the category,” the report states.
The dearth of road projects is at
least in part due to the collapse of
the user-pays model in Gauteng — a
very controversial topic, but a real
challenge that requires workable
solutions as soon as possible.
CoreSlab was extensively involved in the construction of two new bridges over the
Molototsi River in the Mopani District, on behalf of the Roads Agency of Limpopo.
Sanral sees project
pipeline tail off
N4 toll road between the M17 Garankuwa and R512 Brits interchanges.
www.civilsonline.co.za
Skhumbuzo Macozoma, CEO of
Sanral, speaking at last year’s SAFCEC
Annual National Conference,
provided an outline of the hold-ups
in the road project pipeline.
“Supply chain reforms in
government have sought to
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