The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has announced that it will take over the maintenance and repair of all traffic lights in the metro.
The JRA recently concluded a successful negotiation with the Gauteng provincial government to resume its previous role as the area’s primary road management service – a position it hasn’t held for nearly three years.
A resolved dispute
The JRA was previously responsible for all of the intersections and traffic lights across Johannesburg’s seven municipal regions.
However, the agency lost this role in 2022 following a dispute with the South African Revenue Services, which left the entity unable to fulfil its obligations to the Gauteng Provincial Department of Roads and Transport.
Consequently, the provincial department stepped in to manage the intersections for every major road in Joburg, which it has continued to do for over two years.
However, the matter has finally been resolved, and the JRA will assume responsibility for 2,023 sets of robots located along several major routes including Winnie Mandela Drive, Beyers Naude Drive, Ontdekkers Road, Chris Hani Road, Hendrik Potgieter Road and the Soweto Highway, according to The Citizen.
The road agency’s official duties comprise the rebuilding, upgrading, and maintenance of all signalized intersections in its jurisdiction, and these efforts are not expected to conflict with various community involvement projects that are also intended to improve the function of the city’s road infrastructure.
A difficult task
The JRA has an uphill battle to fix Johannesburg’s traffic lights, as the city was recently flagged for its alarming infrastructure statistics.
It is estimated that there are at over 300 non-functioning robots in Joburg, many of which have been damaged or vandalized by thieves and other criminals.
Cable theft is a commonly reported issue, as materials such as copper wire can easily be sold to scrap dealers.
Additionally, nearly all of the uninterruptable power supply units, which are meant to power key intersections in the event of load-shedding, are no longer working.
The city is currently facing a repair and maintenance backlog exceeding R70 million, and the province previously revealed that it can cost up to R1.5 million to replace a single traffic signal, placing a huge strain on its budget.
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