Two sets of traffic lights in Halfway House cause headaches for motorists
Lesiba Mpya says the department is currently awaiting the budget adjustment window period around October to reallocate budget for the continuation of service such as fixing traffic lights across the province.
During peak hours, motorists driving in Halfway House’s corner of Le Roux Avenue and Pretoria Main Road and Pretoria Main and Allandale roads scramble for the road.
Not only do motorists try to navigate through the time-consuming traffic lights, pedestrians are also trying to cross, are hooted at by rushing motorists while they try to make their way to their respective destinations.
Read more: Vandalised traffic lights pose risks for motorist and pedestrians
This is because the two sets of traffic lights about 1km or less apart from each other have not been working for over three weeks now.
The knocked-down lights were spotted by the paper earlier this month at Le Roux Avenue and Pretoria Main Road.
The paper then contacted the Department of Roads and Transport spokesperson Lesiba Mpya regarding the challenge the traffic lights cause.
He was asked whether the department was aware of the non-functioning lights, how often they are monitored to ensure they work properly and what measures are in place to ensure the lights are restored back to normality.
Also read: Blue Hills traffic lights a concern to councillor and motorists
Mpya said the department’s interim recourse has been to convert these affected intersections into four-way stops and acknowledge that this impacts time delay, traffic congestion due to heavy traffic flow and this inconveniences the road user.
“There has been a surge in the destruction and vandalism of traffic signals throughout the province and has as a result depleted the repairs and maintenance budget in the current financial year as the repairs and replacements of these signals were initially not budgeted for. Although this is the case, the department, however, currently awaits the budget adjustment window period around October to reallocate the budget for the continuation of service,” said Mpya.
He said in addition, as a commitment to the cause of sustainable service delivery, the department is initiating a partnership with the private sector network.
This is for traffic signals whose interests are rapidly growing and will in due course be across all regions through formal ‘requests’ to participate in the Adopt and Protect a Robot Campaign.
“We do apologise for the lapse in the quicker turnaround on adequate responses and do commit that with the remedial internal processes underway, we shall be resuming normality,” concluded Mpya.
It is not the first time these sets of traffic lights have been out of order.
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