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RAA’s road safety experts are taking to Goodwood Road this week to assess the corridor’s sunken pit covers, as the organisation continues its road safety initiatives and advocacy on behalf of SA road users.
The state’s largest member organisation regularly assesses road maintenance concerns including uneven pit covers, which are a bug bear for motorists and a potential safety hazard.
In the last two years, RAA has also prepared reports on hazardous pit covers on Main North Road, Portrush Road and Grand Junction Road – with its findings and recommendations submitted to authorities so repair works can be considered.
RAA Senior Manager Safety and Infrastructure Charles Mountain said RAA’s traffic experts had reviewed more than 400 nominations for various infrastructure concerns via its Report A Road platform so far in 2023.
“RAA was formed in 1903 as an advocacy body for motorists, and we’re proud to continue that tradition by regularly investigating issues that SA drivers care about.”
“We know sunken pit covers are a big bug bear for drivers and can impact both the comfort and safety of their journeys, so we regularly assess these covers on commonly raised roads – of which Goodwood Road is one.
“Using a Vericom data logger attached to a vehicle, RAA’s traffic engineers drive over pit covers to take a G-Force reading before cross-referencing the coordinates of the reading with dashcam footage.
“When we assessed Portrush Road earlier this year, for example, 75 of the 237 service pit covers we assessed exceeded a calculated comfort threshold. We presented these findings to SA Water who use our data to inform their forward program of works.
“Previously we’ve been pleased to see roads such as Brighton Road and Hampstead Road have had some of their sunken pit covers repaired to make for smoother journeys.”
Mr Mountain said pit cover assessments were just one of the types of road assessments that were regularly conducted by RAA.
“Road maintenance is a huge issue facing South Australia – with a backlog of more than $1.5bn and counting,” Mr Mountain said.
“RAA is proud to be one of the state’s leading road safety advocacy bodies, and we regularly make submissions to government on behalf of our 810,000 members that support safety improvements on the road.
“As part of this, we have assessed the road network in almost every region in SA – which includes engaging with the local community, investigating corridors of concern, and presenting our findings to authorities.
“Through our Report A Road program we also investigate nominations for road maintenance issues from RAA members. This year alone we’ve reviewed more than 400 of these nominations, and have raised more than 100 of them with local authorities.”
To learn more visit raa.com.au/roadsafety.
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