(For proper roadwork, the right way to do a patch for potholes – instead of covering only the hole, cut a bigger area and patch in the right way and follow up on the patchwork. How many times you have seen this in the Bolehland? Image source: http://www.gallagherpaving.com)
Read these stories back in 2011:-
Whether in residential or commercial areas, travelling around the city often means a bumpy ride because of the potholes and badly patched stretches of roads. In many places, roads in good condition are dug up by utility and telecommunications companies for the laying of pipes and cables. They are then badly resurfaced.
In April, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng had highlighted at least six places in his constituency where roads were dug up without a permit. A spokesperson from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) corporate communications department confirmed that there have been cases where contractors operate without approval from DBKL.
“If we find out that they have no permit, we will contact the respective companies. If the dug-up areas have not been patched up or resurfaced, we will do it for them and issue them the bill.
“We have also found out that many contractors appointed by the companies have no expertise in resurfacing roads,” he said.
(Source)
And
Most councils require a deposit from companies before they are allowed to carry out any roadwork. If the council finds the resurfacing job has not been done properly, resulting in sedimentation on the road, the deposit is then forfeited. It has been reported that RM500,000 per kilometre is needed to carry out road resurfacing.
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said the two causes for the bad road conditions in the Klang Valley were the old method of patching the holes as well as underground water leakage.
“There are also contractors who take the easy way out to save money,” he said. However, there is not enough enforcement to check on the quality of roadworks.
In his constituency alone, there are holes from digging work that have been left as they are for months, especially in Segambut Dalam, Mont Kiara and Hartamas.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Ismail said 80% of the potholes and uneven roads were caused by utilities and telecommunication companies digging up the roads to install and repair their cables. He said there were so many of such roadworks that it had become an embarrassment to DBKL because the blame was often laid at its door.
(Source)
The road near my workplace was bad so much so that I was even contemplating of buying a 4 wheel drive vehicle for my daily commute.
It was a similar case with another stretch of road near my housing area. It gets worse – a certain part of the road gets flooded once it rains. Then one day, a couple of days before the general election, a “miracle” happened and it happened overnight – it could have been one of the pre-election goodies. The road was resurfaced and to a quality that all Malaysians can be proud of. And the level of the road has been raised to ensure it does not get flooded whenever it rains.
And it was so for a couple of weeks until some bastards decided that they need to do some roadworks, digging up the whole stretch of the beautifully resurfaced road to do some piping work and they decided to do the roadworks at peak hours. They closed one part of the road, causing the already terrible traffic jam to be even worse. And then they started digging and the roadworks lasted for a few days. Then they do the worse kind of patching work ever once done.
The patchwork was not the same level as the road and ended up as mini bumps all over the place. Some started to form into mini potholes. And after a couple of days of rain, it went bad to worse.
Potholes and bad road work are not new in Malaysia – as far as one can remember, this has been so for many years. Whenever I see the excavator digging into the beautifully laid road (resurfaced with taxpayers’ money), it pains me greatly. And it has been a norm in Bolehland to see some buggers digging up the road just after it has been perfectly laid on and not before that.
Don’t these idiots plan before they do things? Don’t they check first with the relevant authorities and get their approval to ensure that whatever roadwork to be done is done before the road is scheduled to be resurfaced? Don’t they realize that they causing the taxpayers some serious money to resurface the road again?
Probably they are the same idiots who queue up at the express lane at the supermarkets with more than 10 items despite a large notice at the counters.
Never mind, let’s assume that they are digging up all over the place in the “best interest” of their paying consumers. After all, wouldn’t we all be making a lot of noise when our internet gets disconnected or the water supply breaks down unannounced? And let’s assume that they are unable to plan the digging before the road is resurfaced due to some unavoidable circumstances, red-tapes at the local authority or to some serious emergency (where they could not afford to wait).
The next question in mind is why these buggers can’t resurface back the road in a proper way and without the bulging patch all over the place or the sink-holes (due to insufficient topsoil, heavy traffic or bad weather). Can’t they put themselves in the shoe of the long-suffering road users who have to ply the same road and risk serious damage to their vehicles after that shoddy patchwork?
After all, if they know how to dig, they also should know how to patch, right? No excuse of them not being well-versed with road-work or their sub-contractor not doing the job to the right specifications and quality (it’s alright if it looks ugly or messy but at least it needs to be strong enough to take the usual stress and not turn into a bigger pothole).
No excuses of the weather (the usual sorry excuse) or heavy traffic on the road – it is already known fact, so whatever patchwork done must take this into consideration. Unfortunately, instead, we get the usual quick fix of placing back the content dugout and then pouring the bitumen on the pothole and simply patch it to cover the hole – some to the same size of the hole instead of a bigger area and leaving plenty of spaces for water to seep in and make it worse.
Why the shoddy work? Is it because someone is trying to make that extra bit of profit from saving up money to be spent on a proper patchwork? Or is it because it has been sub-contracted to less competent contractors – one who has less experience, skills and the know-how but formed just to milk the lucrative Government projects?
And what happened to the enforcement aspect of the local authorities inspecting the patchwork and to ensure that it is up to mark and if it is not, to force the contractors to redo the patchwork or fine them left, right, centre for the poor patchwork (and then use the fine to do a proper resurfacing later or to reimburse motorists who suffered damages to their vehicles).
Do that and they will think twice of short-changing the taxpayers when it comes to doing a good job – can we?
And since potholes have been with us since the creation of the roadways, are we also looking on whether we need to improve on how we tackle potholes with new technologies. Or are we still far off from this kind of long term solution for a long outstanding problem?
In the meantime, we should be up arms against anyone who dig up the roads but don’t bother to take the time and proper care to do professional repair work. After all, this is eating up into the taxpayers’ funds in the long run and creates an unnecessary danger to all road users.