The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) launched a newly built asphalt plant in the south of the city last week, to help accelerate projects like the converting gravel roads to surfaced roads.
Acting managing director for the JRA, Goodwill Mbatha, explained that the new asphalt plant will produce asphalt quicker and in a safer manner. “This will speed up service delivery and most importantly, its use of Nomex filters in the baghouse will rectify and eliminate environmental pollution that was persistent with the old asphalt plant.”
Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba said the newly built plant boasts increased capacity, producing a hot mix asphalt from an average 80 tons per hour to 200 tons per hour.
The plant can also produce cold, warm and hot mixes of asphalt which increases the ability of the JRA maintenance teams to respond quicker to asphalt service defects. It also has a dual burner that can use burner fuel and natural gas, increasing the use of green energy, according to Mashaba.
“The plant, first built in 1965, for the purpose of supplying asphalt for our internal roads maintenance programme, experienced chronic breakdowns which hampered maintenance activities such as pothole repairs and the surfacing of roads within the city,” he said.
The roads agency has been allocated capital for road rehabilitation and reconstruction. In addition to this, the entity has also increased its budget for the rehabilitation of bridges in this financial year.
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