2026-08-09
How to report a pothole in Réunion Island
How to report a pothole in Réunion Island
To report a pothole in Réunion Island you first need to identify who manages the road: the town council for a municipal street, the Departmental Council for a departmental road (RD), the Region for a national road (RN). The most effective approach is to photograph the hole, note its precise location, then report it to the right authority — or publish it on Kartié, where it becomes visible to other residents who can confirm it and follow its repair.
Three managers, not one
This is the first source of confusion: in Réunion Island, a road does not necessarily belong to the town.
- Streets and municipal roads are the town council's responsibility. That covers the vast majority of neighbourhood streets.
- Departmental roads (RD) belong to the Departmental Council. They carry a number prefixed with "RD".
- National roads (RN), including the coastal road and the dual carriageways, belong to the Réunion Region.
Report a pothole on the RN1 to your town hall and your request will be forwarded — or lost. Hence the value of knowing which road you are on.
What makes a report effective
A useful report always contains four things:
- A photo taken head-on, showing the size of the hole. Placing a reference object beside it (a bottle, a shoe) helps enormously.
- The precise location: street name, kilometre marker on a departmental road, or GPS coordinates.
- The direction of travel and the affected lane on a multi-lane road.
- An indication of danger: estimated depth, position on a bend exit, proximity to a bus stop.
A vague report ("there are holes everywhere on this road") cannot be acted on: nobody knows where to intervene.
Why collective confirmation changes everything
A pothole reported once is an individual complaint. The same pothole confirmed by fifteen residents is a documented problem.
That is the principle behind Kartié: rather than fifteen separate posts about the same hole, you confirm a single one. The counter rises, the record is dated, and the history shows when the problem was first observed.
Realistic timescales
A dangerous pothole — deep, on a bend exit, on a busy route — is generally treated urgently with a temporary cold-asphalt repair, within days.
A less critical defect is folded into a scheduled resurfacing campaign, which takes months. This is not bad faith: resurfacing is expensive and has to be planned.
Knowing this avoids frustration. What is unbearable is not the wait: it is not knowing whether anyone has seen the problem.
If your vehicle is damaged
If a pothole damages your vehicle, you can hold the road manager liable for failure of normal maintenance. You then need to prove three things: the existence of the defect, its link to the damage, and the loss suffered.
This is where a dated, publicly confirmed report becomes valuable: it establishes that the problem existed before the incident and had been observed.
- Who repairs potholes in Réunion Island?
- It depends on the road: the town council for a municipal street, the Departmental Council for a departmental road (RD), the Réunion Region for a national road (RN) such as the coastal road.
- How long does a pothole repair take?
- An emergency temporary repair on a dangerous hole takes a few days. A scheduled resurfacing takes months, because it forms part of a works budget and programme.
- Can I be compensated if a pothole damages my car?
- Yes, by holding the road manager liable for failure of normal maintenance. You must prove the defect existed, its link to the damage, and the loss suffered. A dated public report confirmed by other residents is useful evidence.