Road Rage

The roads in the Free State are crumbling, by Nick van der Leek

A road is a lot like car. If you don’t maintain it, it breaks. And the longer you wait, the more you pay.
A road though, also has implications for cars. When roads start to fall apart, they start to shake, rattle and roll the cars and trucks driving over them, wearing out tyres. When it gets bad enough, the drivers going over them start looking like epileptics. In Bloemfontein, it’s that bad.

As a cyclist, I literally feel the r-r-r-roads around here, and the situation is quite serious. Not just in Bloemfontein, but on roads surrounding the city as well. On some roads, if you’re not careful, you can get your tyre stuck in a crack – that’s how wide they are. Gravel blocks are pulling loose, so that roads are issuing large black crumbs all over the tar. Every day we see the yellow adipose under the tar being exposed, in one pothole after another. These are on major arteries in Bloemfontein, like Gen Dan Pienaar Drive, and Andries Pretorius Street.

Recently a pothole emerged on the busy Nelson Mandela intersection near Mimosa Mall. A few days later a blob of tar was applied. Then a square block of exposed gravel, half a foot deep, and 4 feet wide, appeared at the intersection close to Saint Andrews School. It was such a big gash that you had to swerve around it, or else be jolted vertically. A pothole at an intersection is a dangerous distraction. After a few days a strip of black tar was applied as a sort of patch. Problem solved?

The problem is, roads all over Bloemfontein have become threadbare. The roads can’t be maintained on a one-pothole-at-a-time basis. In the street where I live, potholes are beginning to appear. The roads are in need of a full service, probably a whole new surface, and at least a new layer of paint. I know of two sections of road where this is happening, but both are beyond the city limits.
One might argue that there are more important things to take care of, like housing. Ignoring the state of roads is expensive and foolish. Roads are how we are conveyed through cities, and its avenues and suburbs. It’s our daily reality. A country is judged by outsiders, and more importantly, by its own residents, based on its roads. Imagine what a road full of potholes or cracks does to the perception for foreign or local investors, or the perception of value for a neighborhood. A bad road implies a poor community. The community ought to demand a rapid response to this issue.

Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff has outlined a number of priorities for the province. These include eliminating fees for education, building 12 000 housing units, increasing the number of anti-retroviral sites to nine, and making changes relating to governance and land restitution. These may be valid priorities, but the maintenance of roads should also be at the top of her agenda.
I’m aware, from this year’s Free State Provincial Government Report Card* that the city coffers are full to overflowing with tax money. A total amount of R359 079 million was allocated for 2005/2006, and of this amount, R218 047 has already been spent. There’s still a lot left. Where is it going? The community ought to get involved in offering suggestions.

To report bad road surfaces in Bloemfontein, please call the Municipality at 051 4058011

Writer’s note: Slip-sliding into cynicism is an article by Barry Ronge in the latest Sunday Times magazine. It’s about his experience with regard to the deterioration of roads. What’s yours? Send your story and pictures to reporter.co.za and let’s gauge the national extent of the problem.

*Quoted from FSPGRC: Article 19. Government will allocate R146 million for roads and R68 million for new infrastructure projects as well as rehabilitate and maintain existing infrastructure in line with EPWP.