Why are there so many potholes in Malaysia?

According to an opinion survey by the World Economic Forum in 2019, Malaysia is ranked at number 21 out of 141 countries when it comes to road quality. We even surpass United Kingdom (37) and New Zealand (48), and we’re just 1 rank below Germany, the country famous for its Autobahn. 

It’s an interesting survey result, although, the validity is questionable. Yes, we do have good stretches of roads, but praise for our road quality is something we rarely ever hear about.

If the topic of Malaysian roads ever comes up, it’s always about potholes, ponding, or poor planning. The scariest of them all would be construction materials falling onto traffic, but that’s a topic for another day.

In this article, we attempt to understand why our roads are in such condition. The standards set by the authorities are pretty holistic. Road quality in Malaysia is assessed based on the following aspects – ride quality, safety, and aesthetics.

The guidelines straightforward and we’ve been making roads since before our independence. So why does our road quality sometimes seem sub-par?

To get our questions answered, we interviewed a seasoned civil engineer. And the answer comes up to two main reasons – overloaded vehicles and cutting corners.

1. Overloaded vehicles

Newsflash - Our roads can only take so much weight. Vehicle weight is something we usually only think about when it comes to bridges. It becomes a bigger matter of concern (on bridges) because the consequences of overloading are dire.

Just like bridges, normal roads can only take a certain amount of load, albeit heavier. If you look at big trucks, you will notice a supposed load limit label.

Depending on how many tires are in contact with the ground, the truck can carry different limits of load.

The weight needs to be well-distributed to prevent rut on the road surface. As you’ve guessed it, the pressure of saving cost on transportation causes trucks to be overloaded, causing damage to our roads.

Would you overload your truck too to save on costs?

2. Cutting Corners

From our interview, we learnt that road specs are clearly stated by the administration.

While they may sound complex to the average person, the required materials and their respective thicknesses are clearly laid out. We also learnt that at almost every stage of roadworks, an inspection is required.

So how can corners be cut?

Well, for one, there’s always the temptation of putting in less materials to save costs. Asphalt is costly, and once contracts are sub-contracted upon sub-contracts, there’s not much of a margin left to make. Hence the temptation to cut costs.

There are also opportunities of cutting corners in the execution of civil works itself. For example, once a foot of asphalt (in thickness) is laid, it needs to be compacted. Then only you proceed with the next layer of asphalt.

To cut corners (and make the job faster), a looming deadline (or a lack of patience) may tempt contractors to do the compacting with every 2 feet instead of 1 foot of asphalt. Hence the asphalt is not properly compacted, reducing its strength.

When it comes to inspections, there is the risk of corruption, and sometimes when a road is too far out (in a rural area), no inspection is done, because there’s simply no one to conduct the inspection (understaffed).

So those are the points highlighted by a seasoned civil engineer. It seems that the solution is to not overload commercial vehicles and to ensure roadworks standards are complied without cutting corners.

In other reports…

In an interview done by Rojak Daily with Prof Dr. Ratnasamy Muniandy of UPM, failure of roads can be caused by several factors including road design, material design, construction, moisture, and temperature.

Prof Dr. Ratnasamy Muniandy proposes the usage of fibre mastic asphalt to improve the durability of our road surfaces.

This approach attempts to solve the problem at the construction stage by making the road more durable.

IEM highway and transportation engineering technical division chairman Gunasagaran Kristnan told StarMetro that “Many contractors do not follow specifications.”

They often treated maintenance and patchworks lightly, without looking into the root cause of the problem. This answer is very much in line with the answer from our earlier interview, although Mr. Gunasagaran highlights rampant corruption when it comes to bad road quality.

Summary

It seems the answer to our poor road quality is a simple one – negligence. Poor road quality can be caused by negligence during construction and maintenance. Even logistics negligence can be a cause (overloaded vehicles).

Of course, there are efforts towards improving our road construction materials, but as highlighted by those in the industry, improvement can be made when it comes to quality and standard compliance. Good roads improve our safety and we would all like that