The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has announced delays to several of its roadworks programmes across Johannesburg owing to a shortage of bitumen countrywide.

The agency said on Friday that the resurfacing of roads and the patching of potholes in the city would be temporarily halted as a result of a shortage of the oil-based, semiliquid substance, which was used in the production of the asphalt mix for road surface construction.

This was the direct result of the shutdown of local refineries for maintenance, JRA acting MD Mpho Kau said in a statement.

“[Petrochemicals groups] Total and Engen are the only refineries that have confirmed that operations will resume in early August. The JRA asphalt plant has, therefore, stopped production and operations are expected to resume from August 10. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” he noted.