The unavailability of bitumen could further delay the repair of potholes which the Fiji Roads Authority says are some of the worst in recent times.

The FRA says the best solution is to tear off and rehabilitate parts of the damaged roads, but in the interim they will continue to repair potholes.

$3.5m has been spent on potholes along 36 kilometers of road around Suva before Christmas break.

Acting Chief Executive Kamal Prasad says pothole repairs will commence once raw materials become available.

“We had run out of bitumen and we had to stop until this Christmas break now and we still don’t have bitumen and it arrives on the 12th of this month when we can restart our rehabilitation work, reconstruction works for multiple pothole roads we are dealing with at this moment and the idea is to rip the whole road up and reshape it and resurface it.”

Prasad adds that the lack of qualified contractors is also hindering repair work.

He says, at the moment, they have five contractors fully committed working in Suva, and they can’t go any faster because there is no more qualified contractors.

Prasad adds they need contractors who are fully equipped and need to have specific set of plants.

The Acting CEO says they currently have five contractors spread across the country working on different roads.

The road work including sealing will now resume from next Wednesday.