The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has received an additional R94 million to address road and related infrastructure backlogs and boost economic growth, according to a press statement released by the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).
The money will be allocated towards the JRA’s priority projects which include pothole repairs, road maintenance, traffic lights and the preservation of the road network for the remainder of the 2017/18 financial year.
“The decades-long neglect of infrastructure maintenance means that there is a still a huge mountain to climb to effectively resolve the insufficient maintenance and under-investment in our city’s ageing roads and bridges,” said CoJ transport member of the mayoral committee, Nonhlanhla Makhuba.
Some R60 million has been earmarked for pothole repairs alone, but in order to improve service delivery in the long term, the JRA estimates that R3.48 billion is needed for road resurfacing and R2.3 billion for reconstruction. “Despite the increased budget allocation, potholes will continue forming on our roads as our current funds cannot fully address the City’s ageing infrastructure backlog which requires comprehensive maintenance,” he said.
R28 million has been assigned to strengthen maintenance operations by 2-3 teams per region – a portion of this will go to funding employee overtime. The organisation will also be implementing on-the-job training of foremen and supervisors to improve efficiency and productivity.
Furthermore JRA will start emergency rehabilitation and repairs of six bridges affected by the recent heavy rainfall and flash flooding across the city. The damage to the bridges was estimated at R113.5 million.
