'n Plan met slaggate

Ekskuus vir die Engels, maar het dit al verskeie kere in Afrikaans gepropageer maar kan nie nou die briewe kry nie en kon ook geen reaksie kry nie

20 April 2010

The Minister Responsible for Roads

By Hand, through the VF party

Dear Sir

Marking of potholes

I have just read a letter in Beeld that in Italy they are painting potholes yellow so that people could see the holes. They say it can be done quickly and will warn motorists of such holes before the maintenance teams can do repair work. However, in my view, the painting of potholes inside must in many cases be done on loose gravel/soil, which will not show so clearly. It will also not help if the holes are filled with water.

I had an idea a few years back that should be better. Paint a white frame of 50 mm width (or 40 even 30 mm) width around a pothole. Such a white frame can easily be seen from far away because it is on the surface of the road. Also, white shows up better than yellow, especially at night. It will also be visible even if filled with water.

When repairing the pothole, the maintenance team chops away the white frame, making the pothole a little bigger, which is really no problem, and does not even add to the repair cost significantly. The repaired pothole will just show as a black patch as usual. By the way, it is these black patches of repaired potholes that looks just like open potholes. Open potholes are often mistaken for repaired potholes with bad consequences. This problem is, again, solved when open potholes have white frames.

I have tried to get this idea implemented, but have not been able to get to the right responsible persons. Now I realize that the idea would be better considered at the top (the minister) and given through to all the people responsible for road maintenance.

If this idea can become a South African way to deal with potholes, it will save many damages to motor cars as well as lives of people. The framing can be done quickly by a person driving along the roads with a few cans of spray paint. In the mean time maintenance teams can plan and repair potholes efficiently.

Therefore, I write this to you, the honorable minister. You could get engineers responsible for roads to try this out, and if all agree, enforce this for all tarred roads in the open fields and in municipalities.

Yours faithfully

WM van Heerden