KOUGA Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks has declared war against potholes.
A special Mayoral intervention programme, aimed at strengthening the municipality’s capacity to repair roads, will be rolled out across the region over the next six months.
Hendricks said R3-million had been set aside for the programme so that more muscle and machinery could be hired to improve the quality of pothole repairs.
“The municipal road teams have been doing a commendable job and repaired almost 8 000 potholes over the past financial year, but there are not enough of them to deal with the problem decisively.
“Kouga’s roads were not maintained by the previous regimes, resulting in a backlog of more than R500-million. This is more than half the municipality’s total annual budget,” he said.
“While the intervention will not mean the end of all potholes, it will set a new standard for repairs and bring us closer to a more permanent fix.”
He said 70 contract workers would be hired and trained to assist the road teams as part of the intervention.
“We’ll also be hiring specialised equipment to improve the quality of repairs, so that fixed potholes don’t simply wash open every time it rains.”
He said the focus would be on high-risk roads with heavy traffic flow, especially in the Gamtoos Valley area.
Hendricks said the municipality would also be going on tender to appoint a contractor to reseal roads.
Thirty-two roads and parking areas, with a total surface area of 140 977m², were resealed in Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis, Hankey and Patensie over the past financial year.
“We’ve had good feedback from communities about the recent resealing programme, with towns such as Hankey never before having benefited from such an initiative.
“We look forward to expanding the programme and will continue looking for innovative ways to get all our roads up to an acceptable standard,” he said.
