The poor conditions of roads around South Africa have led to a pile-up of maintenance that needs to be done.
According to a research paper titled The Road Maintenance Backlog in South Africa by Professor Don Ross and Mathew Townshend from the University of Cape Town, 77.5% of all gravel roads in South Africa are defective, and upgrading each and every gravel road to bring them up to usable standards would cost R1.7-trillion. Meanwhile, R115-billion is needed to finish work on pathways.
The paper states that there is also a R243.7-billion backlog on roads that are used everyday and a R281.2-billion backlog on mechanics maintenance.
The two researchers presented their findings from the paper at the Southern African Transport Conference (SATC), where they revealed these concerning statistics. According to their report there is not a specific time the roadworks can be expected to be completed because of just how huge the maintenance backlog is.
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