The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has laid out short-term recovery interventions to repair Joburg’s flood-damaged roads infrastructure.

The city's seven regional depots will be operating at full capacity from January 16, with teams prioritising the flooding remedial work.

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Disaster Management team, including the JRA and other city entities together with provincial administration, conducted flood damage assessments between December 28 to 31 across all damaged areas city-wide.

The JRA has developed a regional project plan outlining exact areas, the identified flood damage, as well as the interventions required, along with responsible departments and timeframes, says JRA acting CEO Louis Nel.

JRA standby teams have worked throughout the festive period to ensure affected areas are safe for road users and teams have constantly monitored infrastructure damage. Roads and bridges that have deteriorated and become unsafe have been closed to traffic and, where necessary, traffic diversion plans have been implemented.

Further, where road infrastructure reconstruction and rehabilitation is required, the JRA’s planning engineers, together with appointed consultants, will finalise site inspections and assessments. Among others, new designs and specifications will be developed and budget requirements with timeframes put in place with the aim of appointing contractors to undertake the required remedial work.

Procurement processes follow the Municipal Finance Management Act and are based on available budget, Nel adds.

“With the new year upon us and everyone back to business, work and school, we need to ensure our roads are safe and drivable,” said CoJ Transport MMC Funzi Ngobeni.

“Consequently, achievable interventions are required by the JRA to respond to the city’s damaged road network owing to severe flooding experienced late last year.”