Roads agency says 67 000 potholes across Joburg fixed

As of 11 November 2020, the entity reported having repaired over 67 000 potholes across Johannesburg.

According to a statement released by the JRA over the festive season, the agency developed a six-week catch-up plan in November aimed at addressing the service delivery backlog as a result of lockdown.

The JRA said the catch-up plan entailed the use of private emerging contractors (Level 1 and Level 2) who augmented internal JRA staff since the Covid-19 restrictions meant that depot capacity was reduced with the agency only working with an average of six teams each day.

Level 2 contractors focused on pothole repairs and reinstatements while contractors on Level 1 supplemented internal teams on K1 cleaning and skoffeling.

According to the JRA, “Based on our experience, we are aware that for each service request for pothole repairs received, there are eight to 15 potholes in the area reported. This means that the actual backlog for pothole repairs was actually between 48 000 and 90 000 potholes.”

Due to limited resources and the rainy season, the JRA opted to focus on potholes, cleaning of stormwater drains, and skoffeling. They elected to focus on three regions each week with more resources allocated to regions with more reported potholes.

The teams managed to repair 30 000 potholes reported as part of the service requests backlog. During the implementation of the catch-up plan, teams received additional requests from various stakeholders which were incorporated into the plan.

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