Damaged E Cape roads receive R300m boost

FLOOD-DAMAGED Eastern Cape roads have received a R300-million boost.
This was announced this week by the province’s acting deputy-director general of roads and public works, Sandile Booi, and his general manager of roads planning, Craig McLachlan.

T he two men spoke of positive behind-the- scenes moves affecting the fate of the crumbling provincial network.

They also spoke about the Eastern Cape’s road maintenance backlog of R17-billion and the struggle of municipalities to maintain and discover new, informal roads springing up in the province’s 35000km municipal road network.

The department had worked with municipalities and was putting the final touches to the research on the municipal network.

Describing the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) as one of the best parastatals in the country, they said Sanral had in April agreed to take over 4750km of the Eastern Cape’s central road network for no extra cost.

Sanral had since brought R150-million into the province to be spent on roads. This left the department with 42000km of roads to maintain, 38000km of this gravel and 4000km tar.

In a surprising anomaly, they said the uproar over the e-tolling of roads in Gauteng had caused a delay in Sanral funding there, and this had seen a further R100-million being pushed into Sanral road projects in the East London and Mthatha areas.

What excited the two men most, however, was a new national funding model for roads which kicks into action in April and will see the Eastern Cape receive a far greater allocation from national treasury.

The model is based on a new scoring system which takes into account the vast distance covered by the province’s road network, its current terrible condition, and weather conditions.

In the department’s annual report, which was released in October, the cost of flood damage between November 2010 to March this year was put at R1.08-billion.
They said they were putting the R300- million received in flood disaster relief for the 2011 and recent floods to work in 30 different projects.

However, R100-million of this was mainly for the hardest-hit areas in Cacacadu District Municipality, especially Ndlambe, Makana municipalities and Nelson Mandela Metro.

On the downside, they admitted the Eastern Cape public was raising a cacophony of protest over the disastrous condition of their roads. However, they said the department’s R1.9-m illion budget only covered 26% of what was required to get the network running properly.

“We have accepted that figure and are finding ways to work within our economies of scale,” they said. They described their 3000- strong roads department as “lively” and committed.

- Daily Dispatch