The state government spends about RM500 million on road maintenance work annually, said Minister Infrastructure Development and Communications Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong.The state government, he added, allocated RM2,800 per km a month to maintain roads in the state and RM750 per km a month for substandard roads. The federal government, through Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris), allocates RM2,500 per km a month to maintain roads in the state and RM700 per km a month for substandard roads. “Out of the 30,000km of roads in the state, 9,500km are maintained by the federal government. “As such, I hope the federal side will match or exceed the state’s rate as the allocation of RM5 million to the state this year is not sufficient. Especially this year, in particular, floods have caused massive road damage in Kuching and Serian,” he said at the balloting of federal-road maintenance projects at Public Works Department (JKR) office at Wisma Saberkas yesterday.Works Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof was also present. On a related note, Manyin reminded contractors to abide to existing safety procedures whenever they conduct road maintenance works. He pointed out that every day in Malaysia, 19 people die on the roads due to road accidents. One of the causes of road accidents is the lack of safety procedures when doing road maintenance.“Workers place warning signs about five to 10 metres away from where they are working, which is not enough distance for road users to notice and slow down.
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