The unbearable potholes on Vieira Road in Amarosa, Ruimsig are expected to be something of the past in the coming weeks following a resurfacing confirmation by Ward 97 councillor Leah Knott.
Residents along this worn-out route had to drive on the sidewalk to avoid damage to their tyres due to the poor condition of the road.
After many fights and intensifying the pressure on the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Leah announced the good news to the residents.
“The good news is that JRA has now scheduled the resurfacing of Vieira Road from their operational budget and this should be done within the month of March 2021. I will keep an eye on this and let you know of any updates or changes,” she said.
After having Vieira Road added to the priority list again, Leah alluded she managed to convince JRA to rather resurface the road.
“I had a discussion with JRA on Tuesday, 2 March regarding the priority list and how it was implemented, and that it made little to no sense for example to schedule the repair of 74 potholes on Vieira Road, Amorosa which is less than 400 metres long, as opposed to resurfacing it,” she indicated.
Leah also clarified that a priority list is informed by a Visual Conditional Assessment Index which is conducted every two years. “Further to this, we conduct field investigations based on our experience on the ground, and complaints received from road users and communities,” she explained.
She went on to attribute budget constraints as the biggest issue hampering service delivery in her ward. “Ideally, we need at least R680 million per financial year for us to cover most of what are considered priority roads, but as you might have noticed our resurfacing budget – citywide – is always around R100 million,” she said.
She added that due to the low amount given to Region C, many wards did not receive any allocations at all. In her ward, only Hole-in-One Avenue/ Handicap Road received a budget from the current financial year ending 30 June 2021.
“Given the fact that we hardly received an adequate budget from the City, we are forced to prioritise roads that are critical to the network (traffic volume) and those that are in very bad condition. For example, we were about to lose Hole-in-One, which was about to turn into a gravel road. This road carries a lot of traffic during peak hours, despite it being a minor road according to our classification,” she explained.
To get services in the ward, Leah emphasised the importance of participating in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) submissions. “Thank you to the residents who made submissions to the IDP on Vieira Road as it assisted with motivating to have this road added to the current list for resurfacing. Please ensure you participate in the annual IDP submissions, it really does assist in motivating for budget within the ward,” she concluded.
