More than 80% of the national road network managed by the South African National Roads Agency in the Free State is over 25 years old, while much of the network recently transferred to the agency requires upgrading.
Bringing these roads up to national standards would require additional funding and time, SANRAL Free State provincial head Marlize Nel-Verwey said during a stakeholder session in Bloemfontein.
A further 48% of SANRAL’s Free State network had been transferred to the agency during the past two financial years, she said.
Many of the transferred roads were not originally designed to primary and strategic national-road standards and needed to be upgraded to make them fit for purpose, according to Nel-Verwey.
“It has become clear that roads transferred to SANRAL often do not meet the level of service and standards required of national roads,” she said.
“SANRAL now manages this transferred 48% of the network, much of which requires upgrading. Bringing these roads up to national road standards requires both funding and time.”
Roads constructed more than 25 years ago would probably have been designed almost 30 years ago, based on the traffic information and projected road-user requirements available at the time, Nel-Verwey said.
SANRAL used historical data and scenario planning, including anticipated increases in traffic volumes, when designing roads, she added.
The stakeholder session, convened by the deputy minister of transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa, covered planned road infrastructure safety improvements, provincial crash trends, cross-border freight transport, regulatory compliance and the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act.
Road safety was an economic and developmental concern requiring cooperation between the government, private sector and other stakeholders, Hlengwa said.
“We need to understand where and why road safety fatalities are taking place in the Free State, which kinds of crashes are occurring in the province and on which roads, which user groups are mostly affected, as well as what factors contribute to these crashes.”
Routine maintenance undertaken on SANRAL’s Free State network included grass cutting, guardrail repairs and pothole filling, Nel-Verwey said.
The agency also operates a Road Incident Management System to coordinate emergency services, law enforcement and maintenance teams following major crashes on national roads.
The system was intended to clear incident scenes and restore normal traffic conditions as quickly as possible, reducing disruption and the risk of secondary crashes, she added.
