All 37 companies that have agreed to keep Joburg’s traffic lights on

In response to the ever-escalating blackouts in South Africa and the havoc they wreak on the roads when traffic signals are down, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) launched its Traffic Signal Backup Power Initiative (TSBPI) in July this year.

TSBPI allows companies in the private sector to connect their backup power grids to traffic lights at important intersections in order to keep them active during the hours of load-shedding, which at peak levels earlier in 2023 saw the signals being inoperative for up to 10 hours a day.

Thus far, upwards of 37 organisations have signed Service Level Agreements (SLA) with the JRA to keep the important lights up and running 24/7, including multi-national corporations like Sasol and Vodacom, as well as local businesses such as Ford Eagle Corner Group.

“JRA is inundated with requests from corporates, schools, and even NGOs across Johannesburg willing to partner with the entity in keeping the City’s traffic lights on and most essentially, keeping traffic flowing during load-shedding,” said Joburg MMC for Transport, Councillor Kenny Kunene, in July.

“This joining of hands today with Vodacom as well as the 39 other Service Level Agreements that are in progress, is a positive boost to growing our local economy as less time in congested traffic means more productive time at the office, the factory, and the school.”

To make the support system work as planned, the JRA has redesigned the signal wiring of the intersections in question and upgraded the infrastructure to ensure that a company’s backup power kicks in with no interruptions when the electricity goes out. The power uptake by an intersection ranges between 550W/hour to 1,500W/hour.

The impact of this initiative has assisted with traffic movement across the 2,020 signalised intersections and 14,000km of road under the JRA’s jurisdiction, as well as improved safety and contributed immensely to the reduction of time lost in traffic, it said.

Just in the case of Vodacom, the JRA estimates that the TSBPI alleviates congestion for up to 3,000 vehicles per day.

The companies that will keep Joburg’s traffic lights on

The table below, as provided to TopAuto by the JRA, shows all the companies that have signed up to the TSBPI to keep Joburg’s traffic lights operational during load-shedding, as well as the applicable intersections where they will, or have already taken over this duty.