Investigating the environmental costs of deteriorating road conditions in South Africa

Abstract

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

The potential environmental impacts of deteriorating road conditions on logistics systems and the national economy have not received significant attention. This study gives an estimate of the potential environmental costs of deteriorating road network conditions in South Africa. This paper is an extension of past studies dealing with the potential effects of deteriorating road conditions in South Africa and focuses on comparing the environmental impacts of freight transportation on the national and provincial road networks. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for estimating carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles was used to determine the potential environmental costs. Preliminary calculations show increased environmental costs on the provincial road network when used for freight transportation as compared to the national road network. This is because the national road network is in a much better condition compared to the provincial road network. Finally, recommendations for future enhancements of the methodology to quantify the environmental impacts of deteriorating road conditions are given.