Over 25% of the bridges in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) are unsafe to cross, an alarming statistic recently brought to light by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
Discussing the topic of road funding in South Africa, Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said that road funding is of grave concern and that government often bites off more than it can chew on new projects, which sees maintenance and repairs of existing roads falling by the wayside.
“Road funding is a national issue, as well as a provincial issue and a local issue. The roads that you and I travel through town every day are done by local government, financing through allocations of the revenues that they collect from their residents,” said Duvenage in an interview on Newzroom Afrika.
“Again, there’s a big problem here and specifically in Joburg where a number of our bridges, over 25% of them, are not even safe to cross, and that’s a serious matter.”
Joburg is falling apart
It is not only janky bridges that plague motorists in the paradoxically named City of Gold, but also faulty traffic lights, unusable roads, and generally dilapidated infrastructure.
One such example comes from the often dysfunctional traffic lights on Winnie Mandela Drive and Main and Witkoppen Roads, which cause hours of delays for commuters in and around the Fourways area on a regular basis.
While the provincial and municipal authorities have been aware of these lights for some time, they could not agree on who was responsible for the repairs thus leaving motorists to simply deal with the ever-worsening situation.
It wasn’t until the issue was again thrust into the public domain earlier in 2024 that the Gauteng Department of Transport (GDoT) agreed to partner with Eskom to prioritise the repair of these broken traffic lights as part of a service-level agreement reached between the entity and the CoJ in 2022.
However, no definitive timeframes were provided, with the GDoT’s Lesiba Mpya cryptically telling 702 that “something is being done” about the faulty signals and that the GDoT “apologises that it has taken this long.”
Civilian pointsman directing cars at a non-functioning traffic signal on Witkoppen Road.
Likewise, Lilian Ngoyi Street in the Johannesburg CBD is still in a state of disrepair after suffering from a gas explosion in July 2023.
The road was initially forecast to be fully operational once again by early 2025, however, the City recently fired the original contractor after it could not meet the given deadlines, and announced that it would be appointing a new one with haste.
As a result, Lilian Ngoyi Street is now only expected to carry cars again come June 2026 – around three years after the explosion occurred.
Looking at the metro as a whole, its roads are riddled with potholes, litter, and illegal vehicles. The City’s struggles extend to ailing electricity and water infrastructure, too, as well as hijacked buildings.
The problem has reached the point where the CoJ now sits with a R221-billion backlog in infrastructure repairs and maintenance, Bloomberg reported in August.
Exploded Lilian Ngoyi Street in early 2024.
The situation on the ground
To establish credibility to the claim that 25% of Joburg’s bridges are unsafe to cross, TopAuto spoke with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) which is responsible for the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation of roads and stormwater infrastructure in the metro.
Head of Department for Infrastructure Planning, Musa Mkhacane, kindly clued us up on the status of the CoJ’s bridges as reflected on the JRA’s systems.
The JRA periodically undertakes an extensive study into the overall state of road infrastructure in Johannesburg called a Visual Conditions Assessment.
This study follows a Visual Conditions Index (VCI) to categorise bridges and road conditions as either Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, or Very Poor.
According to the JRA’s Bridge Management Systems records, there are 902 bridge structures across the metro. Of these, 707 bridges are in Poor or Very Poor condition (78.4%).
“Our 2016/17 VCI data indicates that 62% of these bridges are in a poor condition, while 16.6% are in a very poor condition,” said Mkhacane.
“Based on these inspections conducted and the severity of the challenges with regards to safety, JRA does implement safety precautions from time to time and those that are high risk will be closed and the public prohibited from using them.”
Currently, four bridges are completely closed in Johannesburg and awaiting finalisation of design and budgets to rehabilitate/reconstruct, including the ones on Buccleuch Avenue, Pierre Road, Platina Road, and West Road.
Meanwhile, 23 are at risk of being closed depending on further deterioration that may happen over time, said Mkhacane.
“There are numerous bridges that the JRA is busy with in terms of re-designs to enhance capacity which would need to be reconstructed as and when the necessary budgets required are made available,” said Mkhacane.
“In the current FY (financial year), designs for 11 bridges will be completed and would require +R240 million to rehabilitate.”
Mkhacane highlighted the following bridges as being in a near-dilapidated state, and provided their current operational status:
| Bridge | Status |
|---|---|
| Sjampanje Street Bridge, Wilgeheuwel | Closed off to traffic following a culvert collapse and erosions at the downstream. Investigations and detailed designs for rehabilitation are underway and the project implementation is subject to budget availability. |
| Modderfontein Road and Pretoria Road, Lyndhurst | Partially useable, the southern carriageway has been repaired and currently accommodates counterflow traffic. The northern carriageway remains closed as processes for construction are at advanced stages. |
| Phakoe Street, Soweto | The edge of the road collapsed due to flooding which rendered it unsafe to use. |
| Ndaba Street, South Soweto | Kerb inlets on the road have collapsed due to flooding and eroded materials on the embankment. Pedestrian walkways have further collapsed. |
| Buccleuch Road Bridge, Buccleuch | Damages to sections of road due to flooding. |
| Main Reef Road, Roodepoort | Embankment eroded on the exit side of the culvert due to flooding and an inefficient stormwater catchment system. |
| Highway Street, Florida | Flooding caused the overtopping of this bridge, embankment erosion on the exit side, and walkway collapse, posing a safety hazard to pedestrians. |
| Stinkwood Street, Randburg | Flooding damaged the culvert, collapsed the wing walls, and eroded the waterways. Evidence of overtopping was presented. |
| Elias Motsoaledi Drive, Soweto | Flooding caused severe erosion at the outlet side and overtopping on both the inlet and outlets. |
| Progress Road, Grobler Park | Flooding caused overtopping on the culvert and severe erosion at the embankment. |
| Hercules Close, Roodepoort | Collapsed embankment. |
| Christiaan de Wet Road, Roodepoort | Eroded embankments. |
| Pierre Road Culvert and Bridge, Ruimsig | Investigations indicated that the culvert structure on Pierre Road, between Alec and Short Streets, is unsafe for both vehicles and pedestrians and needs rehabilitation. |
| West Road Bridge, Randburg | Closed off to traffic. Designs completed. Awaiting budget. |
Mkhacane said 12 of the bridges listed above are in “Very Poor” condition and were impacted by floods that resulted in severe structural damage, rendering them unsafe to cross.
“Further pressure from vehicles could result in the collapse of the bridge structure and road,” he said.
“In other cases, low-lying bridges tend to be unsafe during rainy seasons as they are prone to flooding. These bridges have been closed off to traffic and barricaded. JRA has issued closure notices to the public along with traffic diversion routes.”
The JRA also noted with concern that citizens have taken it upon themselves to remove road closure barriers on the Modderfontein Bridge in Lyndhurst and Sjampanje Bridge in Wilgehuewel, and warned against doing so.
“These closures aimed at safeguarding road users. The public is strongly urged to refrain from tampering with the barriers and entering the construction site,” said Mkhacane.
Mkhacane said that removing road barriers and signage contravenes Section 57 (12) of the National Road Traffic Act. By removing or ignoring these signs, motorists risk accidents and collisions, injury to construction workers, increased traffic congestion, and legal consequences.
Buccleuch Drive Bridge. Credit: Sandton Chronicle
What’s being done
When questioned how things have fallen to this point, Head of Department for Infrastructure Development at the JRA, Kwazelela Mcetywa, emphasised that South Africa’s richest city is over 150 years old and many of its roads and bridges were never designed to accommodate such high levels of traffic.
Paired with budgetary constraints and a rapidly growing populace, it isn’t exactly a walk in the park to ensure that all roads and bridges are fully functional at all times.
“It is important to contextualise factors such as ageing infrastructure, densification, and budget constraints,” said Mcetywa.
“Not all bridges can be adequately addressed by maintenance. Some bridges need structural rehabilitation which can only be implemented subject to budget availability.”
Mcetywa noted that bridges that are severely damaged and pose major safety risks to road users are prioritised in the JRA’s Capital Expenditure (Capex) budget every year.
The JRA’s Capex budget in the last financial year totalled R859 million for all road infrastructure projects, R129 million of which was earmarked for the design and rehabilitation of six bridge structures and culverts.
Two have been upgraded and opened to traffic (Kilburn and Maphumulo Street), while two are currently under construction (Modderfontein Road and Buccleuch Drive).
The remaining two culvert bridges – Albertina Sisulu and Main Reef – have been refurbished.
This financial year, the JRA has set aside a slightly lower R795 million to implement its road infrastructure projects, said Mcetywa.
Among these will be repairs, rehabilitation, and upgrades of the M2, West Road, Pierre Road, Platina Street, Sjampanje Street, Phakoe Street, and Buccleuch Drive bridges.
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