E2.2 BILLION NEEDED TO FIX LOCAL ROADS

MBABANE – Approximately E2.2 billion is needed to rehabilitate and maintain the country’s roads.
Most roads in the country are pothole riddled.

A total of about 445 kilometres of roads need desperate maintenance intervention in terms of resealing or rehabilitation.
This is according to a road engineer who requested to remain anonymous because he had not mandated to speak to the media.
Adding, the expert said some sections of the country’s roads require reconstruction.

“If there could be an intervention on the 445 kilometres, it should be done in phases because of the budget constraints.
“Looking at this number, doing light interventions would cost us anything between E3 million to E5 million to re-tar the roads,”

he explained.

Elaborating, the expert said the roads need to be maintained periodically.
He pointed out that if there was no proper maintenance the roads end up being like gravel.
Illustrating, the engineer pointed out the Lukhula/Big Bend road as a perfect example.

Before the intervention, the source said that road looked like a gravel road. “It was gravel with a black top.”
He explained that the intervention should be done when the road was about 10 to 15 years after completion.
“The intervention improves the service of the roads.

lso, it improves the design life of the road. It extends the design life of the road, making it accessible for additional years as compared to the initial design life, which is normally 20 years,” he added.
Currently, the engineer said the main challenge faced by the country was that it had not invested in maintenance.
He stated that the country had invested heavily on road upgrading and construction.

“We are constructing new roads. We are doing very well in constructing new roads, for a country of our economy. In fact, we are doing better than most countries that are in similar standard. But we are having a challenge of maintenance,” the expert said.
Elaborating on maintenance, he educated that there were two types of which were routine and periodic maintenance.
With routine maintenance, he said it touched on cutting grass; cleaning drains and removing stray dogs that had been knocked down from the road; repairing damaged guardrails; and maybe repainting road markings.
In a nutshell, he said it was an activity done throughout the year.

But periodic maintenance consists of resealing, the expert further explained.
He mentioned that resealing should be done maybe about seven years after the completion of the road.
If such had not been done, the engineer advised that government should consider rehabilitation.
When the road had deteriorated, he explained that it could not be resealed.

“At this point, you have to remove the top layer of the tar, which is known as a base course. It is the layer made from quarry. Sometimes natural gravel is used to make this layer. You stabilise the gravel with cement depending on the soil characteristics, in order to make it stronger,” he said.

With rehabilitation, the expert educated that it meant digging about 30 centimetres from the surface to reprocess those layers, which are the base-course and the sub-base course.
He then highlighted that a road was similar to a human being – you need to do periodic medical checkups.
Since there was no maintenance budget, the expert said government resorted to use gravel in patching potholes.
In most instances, the expert said the gravel was washed away when it rained, causing more damage on the road.

“All these interventions – the cost keeps on increasing if you do not take necessary steps on time.
“These costs double or triple at times. For an example, if you were to make a resealing at E2 million per kilometre, you end up paying around E6 million. And when you are at reconstruction phase you find that the cost has escalated to around E12 million per kilometre,” he said.

Pausing for a breather, the expert empathetically stated that the country was not good with maintenance.
He then made an example of the Nhlangano/Manzini road.

The engineer recollected that it was constructed around 1984, adding that the road had deteriorated.
He mentioned that an intervention was done in 2003, which is 19 years later.
“The section which has many potholes is between Mhlaleni and Salem because of the treatment. We should have gone back in 2010 to have a light seal.
“We never did because we do not have a budget. That road is almost 19 years old without periodic maintenance intervention,” he highlighted.

Also, he disclosed that the Motshane/Matsamo had never been resealed ever since it was constructed.
“We also had a beautiful road, the Mhlabubovu/Sicunusa MR4 road. Now the road has cracks and failures, around Sicunusa. This road was completed around 2003. It’s now 17 years without any sealing. The only thing done on that road was repairing cracks. We need to seal the entire road and save it from deteriorating,” he said.

The engineer also mentioned that the Matsapha/Mbabane and the Mbabane/Oshoek roads were long overdue for resealing.
He also cited the Maphiveni/Mananga MR24 as another road that had not been sealed. 

The expert pointed out that another pothole riddled road was the Mafutseni/Mliba which completed around 1992.
“Soon the Nhlangano/Lavumisa road will be deteriorating. You need to seal the road before it reaches its maximum design life,” he said.

He said people would argue that sealing was not necessary because the road was still in perfect condition.
“People do not have the technical eye to see that the condition is slowly depreciating. The defects are asymptomatic,” he said.
All in all, the expert said the asset (roads) need to be protected because a lot had been invested in the construction.

“We need to intervene at the right time,” the engineer advised.
In an earlier interview with this publication, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport Principal Secretary (PS) Khabonina Mabuza said

all of the country’s roads required major maintenance because they had all outlived their lifespan which is 20 years. Mabuza said billions of Emalangeni were required to attend to all the country’s roads and bring them to status.

“All of the country’s roads need to be renewed. We cannot single out the one connecting Mhlaleni and Nhlangano. We also have a huge responsibility to maintain the Pigg’s Peak, Siteki and other roads. Even the Oshoek-Manzini Highway which we pride ourselves of is over 22-years-old now and has never been maintained. It has outlived its lifespan,” she said.
The PS appealed to motorists to slow down and obey traffic rules while her ministry was still gathering funds to restore the roads to normal state.

Asked if the roads were included in national budget for the current fiscal year, she said there was no such budget because of the state of the liquidity crisis.

“We were hoping to repair the roads with the little budget that we have for the ministry, but it was not going to do much because there has been no specific budget for the maintenance of the roads,” she said.

The World Bank recently urged African states to put more emphasis on infrastructure as it is key to attracting foreign direct investment.

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