Only six per cent of Johannesburg’s 902 bridges are in a good condition.
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Added to that the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) also expressed concern about its failing infrastructure of roads, pavements, electrical networks, water pipes and drains.Executive mayor Clr Herman Mashaba previously expressed these concerns which have been reiterated since.
He said the fight he is fighting is dealing with a R170-billion backlog that will take at least 10 years to fix.
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“These are enormous inherited backlogs from years of neglect that have seen our roads deteriorating over the past decade.
“It is for this reason that I have required the entire capital budget to be spent just on roads to the total deprivation of housing, electricity and water,” said Mashaba.
“It is unfortunate that the administration inherited a R12-b backlog in our road infrastructure and a R56-b backlog in our stormwater drainage systems.
“In a survey conducted in 2017, 3 900km of our road network fell into the poor or very poor condition.”
Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) engineer Thomas Chongo said sections of the M2 bridge that will undergo an emergency 12-month construction and maintenance project that will kick off in October, will be one on the list of bridges that have a maintenance backlog.
“We use our resources as we get it to address all of the backlogs by priority. We need over R50-b to address all the backlogs,” he said.
Mashaba said the JRA needs R81.5-b over 10 years to fix its problems.
City Power needs R17-b to fix aged transformers and replace overhead cables that are prone to theft.
Johannesburg Water needs R12.64-b.
This financial year, the CoJ has less than R10-billion capital expenditure to spend on projects.
Mashaba said the national treasury standard of spending more than eight per cent of the total value of the city’s fixed assets is close to being realised.
“We are currently spending about six per cent and I want it up to 10 per cent by 2021 because of the backlog,” he said.
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