At the recent launch of the Vala Zonke War Room, transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga announced that the planned use of nanotechnologies to repair South Africa’s tattered roads has the potential to “reduce the surfacing costs by 50%, from R10 million to R3 million per km.”
Questionable calculations aside, this technology will see a major reduction in the total repair bill for the roads, which the Department of Transport (DoT) estimated to be in excess of R197 billion, as well as take pressure off the 250-plus roads authorities in the country which have all been hamstrung by budgetary constraints.
First adopted by the Committee of Transport Officials (COTO) in December 2022 as a standard for upgrading unpaved roads, nanotechnologies have been used to better and more cost-effectively reinforce road surfaces and significantly reduce water seepage compared to the old technologies.
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has since approved seven major projects with a total length of 180km where nanotechnologies will be used for maintenance and repair, which are all scheduled to be implemented during the 2023/24 financial year.
Transport infrastructure upgrades a national priority
The majority of South Africa’s roads have reached the end of their 20-year design life and have fallen into disarray due to a persistent lack of maintenance, which not only compromises the safety, capacity, and efficiency of the country’s transport network, but also reduces its economic competitiveness and quality of life for its citizens, said Chikunga.
“It is to the extent of these enormous challenges that we have concluded that the repair of road transport infrastructure must be a national priority,” the minister said.
In this pursuit, the DoT launched Operation Vala Zonke in August 2022 in Gauteng, with all eight other provinces simultaneously rolling out similar programmes, in which it made available its Transport Integrated Information System (TIIS) to all road authorities for the provision of a centralized repository and management services regarding the maintenance and repair of roads.
Concurrently, it launched a pothole-reporting app that allows citizens to take photos of and report potholes they find out in the wild, submit them to the relevant agency, and see the status of the repair.
“The said plan envisaged to have a central platform, using an automated system to: allocate a complaint, track progress, identify and resolve delays, intervene or provide support to address service delivery challenges, and provide feedback to the public using the App,” said Chikunga.
The outcome of Operation Vala Zonke didn’t meet expectations, however, and the DoT therefore had to find a new approach which led to the introduction of a War Room.
“The basic principle of a War Room is to bring everyone responsible for carrying out the intervention by the Department of Transport, as directed by Cabinet, for the Road Maintenance, Refurbishment, and National Pothole Programme, in one room where they can communicate easier and gather thoughts together,” said the minister.
The War Room monitors road repairs in all provinces of South Africa and assigns two operators and one supervisor to each, who will now communicate with road authorities in the various regions about the location and magnitude of reported potholes, as well as their repair status.
In addition, Chikunga said the DoT will start being “more hands-on” when it comes to road maintenance and use Sanral as its coordinating agency in this endeavour, as well as move certain sections of road from the jurisdiction of provincial authorities to the purview of Sanral which is more capable of doing the job.
“As government, we are confident that through this coordinated and seamless approach provided by this War Room, we will be able to tackle pothole challenges and make an important difference that our people can witness and experience,” said the minister.
“The DoT’s desired outcome is to reduce all transport-related incidences and accidents, which will ultimately lead to a significant reduction in injuries and fatalities.”
Chikunga said the War Room will see all reported potholes patched up within 14 days, and if this doesn’t happen, it will allow the roads agency to easily determine why the pothole was not patched.
“It could be the issue of skills [or] it could be the issue of resources, and therefore we’re going to have the decision-makers meeting every week to look at strategic issues and decisions that need to be taken to unblock whatever obstacles that are there,” she said.
Keyword: Nanotechnology to decrease road repair costs in South Africa “by 50%, from R10 million to R3 million per km”