Hayat Indriyatno, Jakarta – A road expert has joined in the chorus of criticism against the Jakarta and central governments for the poor state of roads in the capital, long stretches of which have become badly damaged or potholed as a result of the recent rains.

Soegeng Purnomo, an expert on road construction at the nongovernmental Indonesian Transportation Society, or MTI, said on Tuesday that although plans to build and expand the road network were laudable, the implementation was "woeful."

"The quality of the roads in Jakarta are simply woeful. And to make matters worse, the process of fixing them is just as bad," Soegeng said.

He said there were standards in place that needed to be followed for repairing roads with potholes, but that contractors almost invariably failed to comply with those guidelines.

For one thing, he went on, the contractors tended to just fill in any potholes they found with hot-mix asphalt, without even making sure that the mixture was poured at the correct temperature of 180 degrees Celsius.

"So you have a case where the mix of materials in the hot-mix isn't even up to standard, and then it's being poured at a much lower temperature than required, usually less than 100 degrees Celsius," Soegeng said. "So obviously you end up with a stretch of road that will easily become potholed again."

He said that many stretches of road, when newly built, appeared smooth. But because the contractors tended to skimp on the quality of the materials used and on the heating required for the asphalt, the blacktop was not as compact as it needed to be.

Cavities in the asphalt then trapped water, which, combined with the repeated loading from motor vehicles, caused small holes to form that would eventually expand to become potholes, Soegeng said.

The Public Works Ministry and the Jakarta Public Works Office have come under mounting criticism for the rapidly growing number of damaged stretches of road as heavy rains and on-and-off flooding continue to hammer the capital.

Official data show that damage to roads in the last two weeks has increased by 133.6 percent. Some 3,903 damaged sites needed to be repaired, up from 2,234 a fortnight ago. It is likely that there are cases of road damage that have not made it into the official count.

The Jakarta administration, which last December conceded that its "zero hole" program to fix all potholed roads had failed, said it would roll out the program again this year.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said on Monday that the city planned to layer some of the damaged roads with a quick-setting steel-reinforced concrete, which would theoretically make for a more durable surface than asphalt.

He said the repairs, to be launched immediately, would prioritize some 144,000 square meters of roadway, or 3 percent of the city's total road surface, primarily in the North Jakarta areas of Cilincing and Tanjung Priok. Roads in both areas have for years undergone a cycle of deterioration and repair, with much of the damage blamed on the heavy container traffic passing through on its way to and from Tanjung Priok Port.

Basuki said the concrete layers, with a rated setting time of just six hours, were guaranteed to last for at least five years.

He did not cite a budget for the project, but said it would work out cheaper than having to constantly rebuild and repair the roads every few months.

Basuki said the work would begin once there was one-or two-day a letup in the rain.

Jakarta Police reported at least four people died in the past month alone due to poor road conditions in the capital, including a 7-year-old boy who was run over by a truck after being thrown from his mother's motorcycle when it hit a pothole.

In 2013, a total of 19 people died as a result of the poor roads, most of them motorcyclists.