After receiving 32 000 pothole service requests, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has successfully resolved just over 22 000 as at September 14.

In addition, the agency reports that 1 600 of the 2 200 patches were resolved.

The JRA also notes that the road reinstatement data reflects just over 1 000 reinstatements resolved out of the 1 300 reinstatement work orders created to date.

The JRA highlights that City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Mayor Geoff Makhubo’s project on accelerating pothole resolution is considered a priority and small, medium-sized and microenterprises have been contracted to attend to this before the serious challenges that would be brought about by the rainy season.

“Innovative solutions will be announced in the next few weeks,” the JRA says.

In terms of traffic light functionality, the JRA points out that the traffic signal network relies on external sources of power supply and, as such, for the period of July 1 to August 31, 50% of all traffic signal downtime was related to power failures.

In this regard, the highest percentage of downtime as a result of power failures experienced was in December 2019, with 60% downtime; February 2020, with 66% downtime; and July 2020, with 67% downtime.

Theft and vandalism of traffic signal infrastructure contributed about 9% of downtime a month, while technical faults contributed about 24% to traffic light downtime.

However, despite these problems, the JRA says traffic light problems that are reported and meet fault reporting standards are attended to within seven working days, representing an average resolution time of 48 hours.

In terms of road light pole destruction incidents, the JRA reports that vehicular collision incidents account for about 4% of the overall monthly downtime. In this regard, the agency reports that an average of 64 poles affected each month are fixed within ten working days.

“Road users and the community in general [are] urged to act responsibly and to safeguard public infrastructure as it is meant to service them,” the JRA advises.

In terms of stormwater management, the JRA notes that its stormwater drain manholes are oftentimes left uncovered as a result of theft and vandalism, adversely impacting on the CoJ’s transport network.

“Theft and vandalism remain a challenge with increasing evidence of theft of manhole covers and related infrastructure,” the JRA states.

To counter stormwater infrastructure destruction, the JRA says it is currently in the process of procuring alternative material to use for manhole covers. According to the agency, these new alternative materials will be suited for use as manhole covers only and will have no significant use for other unintended purposes (such as scrap metal value).

“This should reduce and even eliminate the theft and vandalism of the manhole covers, thus ensuring the safety of the road infrastructure and the road users,” the JRA concludes.