About

Maintenance of roads in the West Coast Region

• All proclaimed roads in the West Coast region (excluding the N7 national route, some tarred roads and municipal streets) are maintained by the West Coast District on an agency basis for the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works.
• The total distance of the roads in the West Coast area is 9 623 km and are categorised for management purposes according to national criteria set by the Provincial Government as Trunk Roads, Main Roads, Divisional Roads and Minor Roads.
• All funds for the maintenance of these roads are provided by the Provincial Government and amounted to approximately R87.094 million for the 2014/2015 financial year.
• This budgeted amount is then allocated to the various types of roads maintenance works e.g. tar maintenance, gravel maintenance, signage, fencing, reseal, regravelling, upgrading, repairing flood damage, etc.
• Further funding is provided by the Provincial Government for tar and regravel works through contracts managed by Province themselves.
• In order for the available funds to be utilized optimally, a prioritization model is used.
• Using the model, all gravel roads are evaluated annually according to technical and developmental criteria and placed in priority order. The technical criteria used in the model include traffic volumes, thickness of the gravel layer, the general condition of the road and maintainability.
• Developmental criteria used are agriculture (e.g. employment and value added), tourism and social aspects (e.g. poverty levels).
• The regravelling of gravel roads are done according to this priority list to ensure that the available funds are optimally utilized.
• The main focus of the district municipality is the maintenance of gravel roads and the largest portion of the available budget is allocated to this.
• All gravel roads in the West Coast Region are divided into 15 blading wards which are maintained by ward blading teams according to a predetermined blading schedule.
• As required by legislation, an Integrated Transport Plan (2010 – 2015) that addresses all aspects of transportation in the West Coast Region was completed in 2010.
• Gravel roads in the West Coast area are generally in a poor condition due to inadequate gravel layer thicknesses, but this problem is being addressed at present through additional funding that is made available for regravelling works and various contracts are underway in the region at present.

Enquiries:

Tel: 022 433 8400 Jolene Spencer-Crow

Hanlie Langenhoven