Works Ministry promises to fix potholes within 24 hours

KUALA LUMPUR: The Works Ministry, through the Public Works Department (PWD), will conduct pothole repairs through the ‘Aku Janji Zero Potholes’ campaign that was reintroduced last July.

The ministry, in a statement, said that the previous Aku Janji Zero Potholes campaign that ran from 2016 to 2018, aimed to strengthen the ministry’s commitment towards the maintenance of roads in the country.

“It is the ministry’s initiative together with JKR and six concession holders for federal roads in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

“Under this campaign, pothole repairs will be done within 24 hours of its discovery or complaints and in three days for permanent repairs as stated in the Federal Road Maintenance contract,” yesterday’s statement read.

The statement defined pothole damage as holes with diameters of 200 to 1,000 millimetres (mm).

“If the diameter of the pothole is under 200 mm, the repair will not involve cutting but will be filled immediately. If the diameter of the hole reaches 1,000 mm, it will require the road cutting technique before filling.

“If the dimension of the hole exceeds 1,000 mm, then it needs to be considered as pavement failure,” the statement said.

According to the statement, the ministry allocated RM1.09 billion for federal road maintenance throughout the country, including electricity, traffic lights and streetlamp bills for 2021.

“The government approved RM100 million in allocations for the implementation of ‘weight in motion’ at federal roads identified through the 2021 Budget.

“The ministry will cooperate with the Transport Ministry to ensure that road surfaces are not easily damaged due to overloading of vehicles,” the statement read.

The ministry is also committed to ensure that every complaint received is resolved as soon as possible without regarding the status of the complainant and also practices the No Wrong Door policy for the benefit of Malaysians.

“A total of 4,091 public infrastructure complaints were received by the ministry and PWD till Nov 30. From the total, 1,473 complaints were regarding damaged roads. All complaints have been processed and action has been taken by JKR.

“Almost 200,000 potholes were found and repaired through monitoring and patrols by PWD in 2019 while 64,000 potholes were recorded with action taken as of last June,” the statement read.

The ministry also viewed every complaint and feedback given was for everyone’s benefit and would ensure information was accurate and complete for investigations to be conducted onsite.

On Dec 27, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was reported to have been involved in an accident when the bicycle he rode crashed after the front tyre got caught in a pothole, resulting in injuries on his face after being thrown to the side of the road.

-- BERNAMA