Sabah JKR grappling with ‘overload’ on road repairs

State JKR director John Anthony said Sabah now has 21,136 km of roads compared to 1963 when there was only 2,100km.

KOTA KINABALU: The poor conditions of Sabah roads is nothing new. But the fact that the state is facing a serious RM2 billion backlog on road repairs is.

The state, according to Sabah JKR chief Ir John Anthony has a daunting task as far as road mantainence is concerned.

Speaking at a dialogue on “Overloading on JKR Road Network” here yesterday, Anthony said frequent damages to Sabah roads was due to overloading as and steep downhill slopes and sharp curves.

“The overloading is so rampant that the roads get damaged faster that we can repair them,” he said.

Anthony explained that the cost of repairing a damaged road in Sabah is between RM1 million to RM2 million per kilometre while constructing a new road costs between RM3 million to RM4 million per kilometre.

“The lifespan of our roads are reduced due to the overloading.

“These roads are meant to last up to a decade before they were mended but now they needed major repairs within three years of completion because of overloaded vehicles plying them,” he lamented.

According to him, the maximum load for Sabah roads ranges from six tonnes (6,000kg) for a four wheel single axle to 38 tonnes (38,000kg) for heavier lorries or machines.

He also revealed the differences in the maximum allowable loads for Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia are due to the lower carrying capacity of bridges in Sabah.

According to him during the last 50 years of independence, Sabah has made tremendous efforts in developing and improving its road network to enable efficient development of the state infrastructure.

“The road length in Sabah during the formation of Malaysia in 1963 was 2,100km compared to now 2013, the road length in Sabah is 21,136km.

“This showed that the road assets in Sabah have increased to 10 times  for the last 50 years,” he said.

The total length of 21,136km comprised of 1,501km federal roads and 10,747km state roads (50% sealed and 50% gravel) which are under JKR Sabah jurisdiction while the balanced of 8,888km (39% sealed and 61% gravel) are under local governments jurisdiction, he added.

Anthony said the estimated economic value of the road assets under JKR jurisdiction is only slightly more than RM15 billion, excluding land cost.