Today, the City, through the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) continued the work of improving the safety of all road users within our communities by upgrading road markings within Region B.
This formed part of a number of events across the City set to commemorate Transport Month, which encourages responsible behavior by all road-users across the City.
Road markings are one of the most important ways of maintaining high levels of safety, as well enabling ease of road use by pedestrians and drivers. In order to do this, one has to ensure that road markings are visible.
The visibility of road markings depends primarily on the contrast between the markings and the adjacent portions of the road surface.
A number of different road marking products are available in South Africa. Most of the road markings used on our roads in the past were solvent based paint which was applied using high pressure spray paint systems.
These markings are particularly thin and not durable.
In a bid to improve the quality of road markings with the City, today, the City introduced the use of new material which will, if proven successful, will allow for more durable road markings.
Due to the ever-increasing traffic volumes a move towards the increased utilisation of thermoplastic and cold plastic materials has been identified. Thermoplastic material can be sprayed to a thickness of some 1,4mm providing a significantly more durable marking.
Added to this, road marking paint is not very visible under nighttime conditions. To improve visibility at night, small beads are added to the paint to provide improved nighttime visibility.
Within the current financial year, the City has set aside a budget of R1,2 billion for the Johannesburg Roads Agency within its capital budget.
This will be used to bring much needed change, Diphetogo, to our communities and ensure that we begin to progressively address our road infrastructure challenges.
Within this budget, is an allocation of R250 million for road rehabilitation and reconstruction.
In addition to this, R181 million is allocated for the rehabilitation of bridges in 2018/2019, up from R49 million in 2017/2018.
Investment in storm water upgrades has also been increased to R226 million in the 2018/2019 financial year, up from R169 million in the previous year.
There are approximately 1169 km of gravel roads in the City, 90% of which are in townships or informal settlements.
To completely eradicate all gravel roads within the City, we would require an investment of approximately R8.1 billion.
Over the past 2 years, the City has spent an average of R335 million per year on the tarring of gravel roads. Over the next 3 years this will increase to R375 million per year – or R1.1 billion over the medium term.
With respect to marking of our roads, R48 million has already been utilized to mark the City’s roads, with more work set to continue.
The JRA’s ongoing campaign to address the matter will go a long way in improving road safety and overall user experience for residents of the City.