The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) is undertaking a massive project to fix its deteriorating road infrastructure with a new pothole and resurfacing campaign.
The metro has earmarked R149.9 million for the Johannesburg Roads Agency to attend to potholes in key areas, covering at least 85km of roads.
In an official media statement, the CoJ said that several areas have been identified as priority targets refurbishment following a Visual Conditions Assessment.
The assessment investigated different parts of the city and categorized the road infrastructure into five categories for “very poor, poor, fair, good, and very good.”
Roads that have been identified as “very poor” require a significant amount of work, possibly entailing the reconstructing or resurfacing of the entire section.
The CoJ stated that this targeted approach allows the metro to address roads that have reached the end of their lifespan, particularly those that accommodate high volumes of traffic, public transport operations, or essential routes for freight movement.
Based on these factors, the city outlined Kliptown, Nasrec, Eldorado Park, Sandton, and parts of the M1 as the areas of most concern.
City officials noted that the initiative will run alongside other JRA responsibilities, such as crack sealing and deep patching.
The asphalt for the road repairs is provided in-house by the JRA’s Booysens Asphalt Plant.
In addition to the pothole and resurfacing campaign, the JRA is working on a regional road reinstatement programme to restore infrastructure excavated by other city services.
The CoJ explained that services like Johannesburg Water (JW) often engage in water infrastructure repairs on the roads, leaving them in an excavated state that needs to be restored to allow for normal operations.
The JRA and JW entered into a service level agreement that reduced 75% of the 10,000-strong reinstatements backlog citywide in the current fiscal year, reported MoneyWeb.
“We understand the immense frustration caused by the current state of the city’s roads,” said JRA CEO Zweli Nyathi.
“This increased budget, up from R105 million last financial year, reflects our commitment to addressing roads that have deteriorated beyond repair and will restore the public’s trust in our infrastructure. We are focused on delivering tangible improvements that will alleviate the daily challenges faced by commuters.”
Long overdue repairs
Earlier this year, Joburg Mayor Dada Morero announced that he would appoint a “bomb squad” to tackle the city’s dilapidated state.
The “bomb squad,” which refers to a task force assembled to fix the city’s infrastructure, was conceived to ‘deal with the ticking time bomb’ that is Joburg’s crumbling roads, according to the mayor.
He highlighted several problems that need to be addressed, such as illegal mining, unauthorized electricity connections, land invasions, illegal dumping, and undocumented immigrants.
Illegal mining has led to the spread of unlawful digging and tunnels, which have often led to the collapse of roads and other overhead infrastructure.
Relatedly, an unauthorized borehole drilling operation shut down the Gautrain rail service in February when the drill broke through one its tunnels.
This resulted in debris and damage to the railway, necessitating repairs that temporarily halted the service between the Park and Rosebank stations.
In response, the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) launched legal proceedings against the perpetrators.
The GMA commented that actions like damaging the Gautrain network or stealing components from traffic lights are criminal activities that need to be prosecuted.
On the subject of traffic lights, the CoJ previously issued a statement in February revealing that roughly 20% of the metro’s robots are out of order.
Some of these non-functioning lights are the result of motorists crashing into them. However, a more pervasive issue is that robots are targeted by scrap thieves for the valuable metals they contain.
This has proven to be a major financial headache for the city, which claimed that it costs R300,000 to repair or replace a single traffic light.
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