The Fiji Roads Authority will continue to patch roads full of potholes until they have the funds and contractors to rehabilitate dilapidated networks.

Infrastructure Minister, Jone Usamate says it is unfortunate that Fiji has a number of roads that need complete rehabilitation, having gone past their serviceability lifespan.

Responding to questions from the Opposition on the amount of potholes, Usamate says it comes down to the resources available.

“What we need to do at FRA is because they don’t have all the contractors and the funds at times to rehabilitate all roads – they will have a planned program to rehabilitate some and those that they’re not going to rehabilitate immediately, they will try to just patch them up until they come to a time where they can rehabilitate.”

The Minister earlier this week was also questioned on the condition of the roads between Ba and Tavua.

“That particular stretch of road, FRA has got a plan to get the contractor on board by May. So in the meantime what they do before they await the time they complete the rehabilitation of the roads – means they rip everything out then they fix the whole road in the meantime they will do some patch-ups on the potholes that are there.”

Usamate says the intention over the long term is to completely eradicate potholes and build roads to a better standard which he says will take time.