bike damaged due to potholes

[King_Crispy]

After the Cosatu call for civil disobedience not to pay toll fees the future of road maintenance on our major roads is in serious jeopardy. We will have to take the responsibilty of answering to our Grandchilren why our all roads will look like this in the future.

 

 

But why? We still pay over 50% of the price of fuel in government levies used effectively by the old government to establish/maintain a transport infrastructure. How is it that the current thieving new regime is managing to steal so much and leave not even enough money over to do even the basic maintenance.

[moby3]

Having thought about this a little more: are you seriously wanting to get the council to pay for a new wheel/rim because your - by your own admittance - k-k idea?

 

What happened to accountability? If you screwed up, learn from it and move on, why must the rest of us pay for your mistake?

point taken.

[Big H*]

But why? We still pay over 50% of the price of fuel in government levies used effectively by the old government to establish/maintain a transport infrastructure. How is it that the current thieving new regime is managing to steal so much and leave not even enough money over to do even the basic maintenance.

 

Just think about roads without getting emotional. A road is a complex structure to design and build. Road can be built to last forever, but then we will not be able to afford them. A road needs to be designed and constructed within a cost, durability and safe paramenter. You work with natural materials that are not always uniform to exacting standards. You fight costs, nature, unions, the public and many other variables in an effort to make some money.

 

You get four types of roads. Major roads, normally National Roads, mostly "N" routes but not always. SANRAL is respondsible for these. Secondary and tertiary road. The Provinces are mostly responsible for these. Municipal roads and streets. The Municipalities are responsible for these.

 

Of all the road types above the roads maintained by SANRAL are in the best shape. They have a pro active maintenance program to ensure that their asset is maintained at all times. SANRAL gets their funding form Government coffers but the funds are not nearlyenough. To enhance these funds they have to take loans from banks locally and abroad. These loans have to be repaid, hence the need for tolling. The Minister of Transport is the only director of SANRAL but they do have some kind of autonomy. The Gauteng Road Improvement that we see very good examples of was approved by Government and the method of paying for the loans was/is to come from tolls. The loans needs to be paid and if it is not done by toll it will be done by taxes. SANRAL also construct roads on a BOT (build operate and transfer) principle where a concessionaire funds the building of the project and tolls the road to repay his loans and of course make money as well.

 

The other roads agencies and municipalities are solely funded by Government. They are so bound by huge overhead costs that they end up paying staff and have no funds left for the critical construction and maintenance.

 

And xample in case is the N1 between Jhb and Pretoria, and example of a road and the N14 between Pretoria and Muldersdrift. This is still and Gaitrans or provincial road. This road is sadly neglegted to a point where I doubt if it will survive the next two rainy seasons.

 

A long winded explanation but I hope it makes sense. I also hope you can understanding why tolling and the need that the funds go to SANRAL is so important.

[Azi]

I know that some motorists have made claims with success here in JHB. I would give your local roads authority a call, and fill in the forms, send in some pics, and worst case scenario would be that you lose some time you could have spent riding.

[The Saint]

In short to be able to claim for pothole damage the pothole in question must have already been reported to the council and not fixed within 7 days of such a report (I stand to correction on the time period)

 

So in other words in order to lay a claim that will pay out you need to find out if the pot hole in question has been reported, if so has the time period lapsed, if so you have a claim if not you will not be paid out.

[ibruegge]

Having thought about this a little more: are you seriously wanting to get the council to pay for a new wheel/rim because your - by your own admittance - k-k idea?

 

What happened to accountability? If you screwed up, learn from it and move on, why must the rest of us pay for your mistake?

 

+100

[riaanb]

Just think about roads without getting emotional. A road is a complex structure to design and build. Road can be built to last forever, but then we will not be able to afford them. A road needs to be designed and constructed within a cost, durability and safe paramenter. You work with natural materials that are not always uniform to exacting standards. You fight costs, nature, unions, the public and many other variables in an effort to make some money.

 

You get four types of roads. Major roads, normally National Roads, mostly "N" routes but not always. SANRAL is respondsible for these. Secondary and tertiary road. The Provinces are mostly responsible for these. Municipal roads and streets. The Municipalities are responsible for these.

 

Of all the road types above the roads maintained by SANRAL are in the best shape. They have a pro active maintenance program to ensure that their asset is maintained at all times. SANRAL gets their funding form Government coffers but the funds are not nearlyenough. To enhance these funds they have to take loans from banks locally and abroad. These loans have to be repaid, hence the need for tolling. The Minister of Transport is the only director of SANRAL but they do have some kind of autonomy. The Gauteng Road Improvement that we see very good examples of was approved by Government and the method of paying for the loans was/is to come from tolls. The loans needs to be paid and if it is not done by toll it will be done by taxes. SANRAL also construct roads on a BOT (build operate and transfer) principle where a concessionaire funds the building of the project and tolls the road to repay his loans and of course make money as well.

 

The other roads agencies and municipalities are solely funded by Government. They are so bound by huge overhead costs that they end up paying staff and have no funds left for the critical construction and maintenance.

 

And xample in case is the N1 between Jhb and Pretoria, and example of a road and the N14 between Pretoria and Muldersdrift. This is still and Gaitrans or provincial road. This road is sadly neglegted to a point where I doubt if it will survive the next two rainy seasons.

 

A long winded explanation but I hope it makes sense. I also hope you can understanding why tolling and the need that the funds go to SANRAL is so important.

 

I definitely don't want to get into a debate about this and you've made this point before on other threads. There is no disputing that roads need maintenance, and that this maintenance needs to be funded. The point is two-fold:

 

1) Are we not already paying taxes and fuel levies to fund this?

2) Is is right to take existing, paid-for infrastructure, upgrade it and then toll everyone for using it. New roads can be funded by tolls, but then there has to be an alternative for those unwilling or unable to pay the tolls. It's not right to remove the alternative.

[Big H*]

I definitely don't want to get into a debate about this and you've made this point before on other threads. There is no disputing that roads need maintenance, and that this maintenance needs to be funded. The point is two-fold:

 

1) Are we not already paying taxes and fuel levies to fund this?

2) Is is right to take existing, paid-for infrastructure, upgrade it and then toll everyone for using it. New roads can be funded by tolls, but then there has to be an alternative for those unwilling or unable to pay the tolls. It's not right to remove the alternative.

 

See the fuel price breakdown here ........ http://www.shell.com/home/content/zaf/products_services/on_the_road/fuels/petrolprice/ ....... Not sure which part is the "levy" you refer to. Taxes we pay is grossly insufficient to maintain our current road network.

 

The Gauteng Roads that were upgraded may be old roads but the cost of building new roads would even be more prohibitive. When the N1 / Ben Schoeman was upgraded from dual lanes to three lanes in concrete it cost ZAR 44 million. I shudder to think what the new rehabilitation cost. The law for alternative routes was changed many years ago.