KUALA LUMPUR – Fixing pothole-riddled roads has been a never-ending battle, mostly due to the lack of coordination in handling the complaints, according to experts.
Universiti Teknologi Mara Institute of Infrastructure Engineering and Sustainable Management deputy director Prof Ir Ahmad Kamil Arshad said an integrated hotline system involving all road owners is one of the best options for coordinating complaints of damaged roads or potholes so that problems can be tackled as soon as possible.
“Those who maintain a road usually know that it is under their responsibility, but many road users do not know how to channel their complaints and will blame only one party, so the expected response to their complaints may be delayed or may not be forthcoming,” he said.
While road maintenance is under the purview of the Public Works Department (JKR), he said most roads in the country, including municipal roads, are owned by other agencies, such as the local authorities.
“I think JKR or highway concessionaires do not have too many problems in the maintenance of roads or highways as they have well-trained personnel and their road surveillance is periodic, but that is not the case for local authorities that do not have response teams to handle complaints and repair damaged roads.
“So, it is only right for each local authority to have a response team with well-trained members to ensure road maintenance work can be carried out effectively to prevent recurrence of potholes,” he said.
Kamil said besides road age, high traffic density, and heavy vehicles, potholes also lingered due to a lack of supervision by the entrusted authorities.
He called on utility providers, including water managements, to carry out early risk assessments in areas with old pipelines that needed replacement to prevent leaking that would affect road surfaces and structures.
“Some potholes are caused by stagnant water which softens underlying soil and road surfaces. Although road paving uses quality materials, if other causes are not addressed, road damage will still occur,” he said.
Sharing his view was a professor in transport engineering, Datuk Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah of Universiti Sains Malaysia, who said that the fact that there was no clear indication of road ownership had also deterred road maintenance issues from being solved effectively.
He said markings for road ownership were only done on highways but it was unclear and confusing on which party should be held accountable for other roads.
“An integrated hotline complaint system can be used by also displaying road owner information in the Waze app. By revealing the identity of the road owner, attention can be given to the accountability of the relevant parties,” he said.
Meanwhile, JKR said in a statement that apart from the “Aku Janji Zero Potholes” campaign, it had also introduced a new set of mitigative standard operating procedures for utility providers repairing structures damaged by utility work along roads under the department’s supervision.
JKR also said that it is collaborating with the Road Transport Department (JPJ) to develop a weigh-in-motion system to record and detect vehicles carrying excessive loads while passing through measured locations.
“The system can help JKR and JPJ obtain data related to overloaded vehicles that can affect the condition of roads under its supervision,” the statement said.
Regarding pavement specifications for roads, JKR said they were based on the “Standard Specification For Road Works Section 4: Flexible Pavement”, the latest specification in line with international standards such as AASHTO, the Australian Standard, and the British Standard, adapted to the local environment.
Meanwhile, Azlan Sani Zawawi, the founder of Ikatan Silaturrahim Lando Brotherhood, a group that has been carrying out voluntary road repair work since 2007, called on local authorities to use high-quality cold mix bitumen to repair damaged roads,. including potholes.
He said using high-quality cold mix bitumen in pavement material was more practical than the commonly used hot mix, which is time-consuming as it requires heavy machinery to cut the road before it can be cleaned and re-paved.
“However, with the cold mix method, potholes can be fixed quickly with hand compactors, and can be quite cost-saving too depending on the level of damage,” he added. – Bernama, February 3, 2021
