Gauteng road users may be in for another toll-shock as the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) said on Thursday that it was in active discussions with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) about the possibility of tolling the M1 and M2 highways in the city.

Gauteng motorists could from the end of June already start paying 66 c/km, before discounts, to drive a car on the 185 km of highway upgraded as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). The toll fee structure is currently under review.

Speaking at the Africa Roads conference in Johannesburg, JRA MD Duduzile Maseko said the city had a maintenance backlog of about R1,5-billion and needed additional revenue to tackle the problem.

“Every day that we are not able to address this backlog the problem increases, while our infrastructure continues to deteriorate.”

This year, the JRA received R149-million from the city's budget to deal with the maintenance, services and upgrade of the province’s roads. Together with additional subsidies and funding, the agency has about R1-billion to carry out the task.

However, Maseko said the funds were still not sufficient to service the backlog that has continued to grow in the past ten years.

“We are now considering borrowing the R1,5-billion to deal with the problem,” she said.

Tolling of the M1 and M2 motorways could then be considered as an option to repay such a loan.

However, Maseko noted that such discussions were still at an early stage and that other alternatives were also being discussed. “We are also considering handing these assets (M1 and M2) over to Sanral, or signing service level agreements with the agency in an effort to consolidate roads from different governmental spheres.”

Maintenance work on these two motorways amounts to about R30-million a year.

Maseko said the agency was also increasingly looking to work with private partners on different and innovative initiatives to increase the agency’s revenue streams.