South Africa’s potholes have increased from 15 to 25 million in the last five years, and to get rid of them, the country would either need to overhaul its transport infrastructure or employ sophisticated digital monitoring technologies, according to Bongani Mthombeni-Moller, a smart mobility expert from engineering consultancy firm Royal HaskoningDHV.
By law, you cannot drive an unroadworthy vehicle in South Africa, yet the roads themselves are rapidly deteriorating.
It begs the question, said Mthombeni-Moller, “shouldn’t we be placing more emphasis on our roads being car-worthy?”
Two roads ahead
Over time, every road naturally becomes more porous with use but continual and adequate maintenance could noticeably slow this process.
The issue in South Africa is that there is often a lack of funding and provisions made for maintenance, which has allowed many of the country’s roads to rapidly decline in quality over the years.
The decay of the road surface is compounded by the increase in the use of commercial trucks carrying heavy loads, said Mthombeni-Moller.
As such, he said there are two proposed ways in which South Africa can attempt to address this issue – the first of which involves an overhaul of the country’s transport infrastructure.
As industry experts have previously proposed, the country needs to make a shift away from its heavy reliance on trucks towards using railways for freight transportation.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated in his medium-term budget speech that “several steps are being taken to introduce greater competition and efficiency into ports and rail” potentially through privatisation and regulated third-party access to the rail network.
Car manufacturers have made similar suggestions, with Ford stating it wants to make greater use of railways for transporting goods between its Pretoria-based Silverton Plant and the ports in Durban.
This would have a two-fold benefit, with fewer trucks on the roads for other drivers to deal with, and ultimately less damage to the roads and fewer potholes.
The other recommendation to address the country’s deteriorating arteries involves the use of digital monitoring technology.
One example is to create “Digital Twins” – digital replicas of physical elements such as streets and buildings – which could be used to pre-emptively stem potential issues with active maintenance.
To do so, sensors and cameras could be added to a stretch of road to monitor traffic, the loads undertaken by the road surface, and whether any potholes are starting to emerge.
This data will be used to engineer a digital replica that could accurately predict and dictate a necessary course of action.
This solution, which is already in use in countries such as Singapore, could help to save money through more efficient maintenance and avoiding the cost of extensive repairs altogether, said Mthombeni-Moller.
Similar projects also exist with Royal HaskoningDHV’s Road Asset Management Services in the North West province, which collects road data and provides it to municipalities to help with maintenance planning and extending the life of their roads.
Keyword: The two paths forward for South Africa’s crumbling roads