The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is intensifying the repair of structural defects on almost 600 municipal roads following a five months hiatus imposed by the national lockdown.
Transport MMC, Cllr Nonhlanhla Makhuba and the agency’s management have announced plans to reinstate regular service delivery blitz’, a City-wide mayoral initiative aimed at eliminating potholes and structural defects on the City’s road network.
The JRA's service delivery blitz deploys regional task teams to repair all damaged roads across all seven regions of Johannesburg within record time. The MMC's announcement comes after the country moved to level two of the lockdown, whose harder version restricted public movement to curb the infectious spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In light of this, the entity began rolling out repair work in Region B’s Bordeaux on Tuesday, 25 August, which focused on road resurfacing.
“Repair work has had to commence with immediate effect given that we have an immense backlog which accumulated over the lockdown period,” says Cllr Makhuba.
Some parts of the City’s road network have been left damaged after excavations were carried out to install fibre cables and repair water pipes.
“This poses a safety hazard to road users, especially if the areas are not made safe after work has been carried out. The current road repair backlog is at 589 citywide,” she says.
The JRA’s Head of Regional Operations, Mzwandile Nkonyane highlights that not all problems on the City’s roads emanate from potholes, especially in Region B where there is no backlog on potholes, rather issues of restoring the infrastructure.
“The City needs help from external contractors. We have witnessed a change since the ‘War on potholes’ initiative was launched and are currently dealing with a backlog of 330 defects that need to be repaired,” says Nkonyane.
He hopes work would be completed by the end of September or in the second week of October.
Nkonyane says the JRA remains committed to maintaining the structural integrity of the City’s roads. He’s urged members of the public to hold the municipality accountable should set targets not be met.
“The time of making excuses in the JRA has passed.”
MMC Makhuba concedes that the JRA is grappling with challenges of restoring the structural integrity of the City’s road network.
“We are intensifying our work to improve progress on repairs,” she says.
She has urged members of the public to report the theft and vandalism of road infrastructure, which costs the City millions of rands in lost revenue.
Written by Neo Mohlala
25 August 2020
