The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has implemented a new Smart City system that should improve road management. The system is the result of a year-long survey conducted by the JRA.
Christine Walters, member of the Mayoral Committee for Transport, said, “The last audit of road infrastructure assets was conducted in 2007. The system should provide updated information that will assist tracking, monitoring and management of the Joburg roads. “It was problematic to take decisions without access to the most recent and accurate information,” said Walters.
Smart City is a layered geographical map depicting all the elements of the roads. “It was a mammoth project,” said JRA spokesperson, Bertha Peters-Scheepers. “In terms of planning, budgeting and maintenance it’s critically important to have a whole database.”
JRA managing director, Mpho Kau said, “The Smart City solution is a critical determinant for the JRA to achieve its objectives of improving the roads infrastructure within the City. Assets captured on the system are searchable and updates can be tracked. A customised and web-based application has been developed for the JRA to enable easy searches and improve the capacity to retrieve information. By linking information, layering data, and filtering of assets by ward, region and type, the Smart City application enables the JRA to take informed decisions and generate relevant reports. The system has sufficient storage capacity to keep complete documents and visual records of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sidewalks. Through the system we are now able to inform the planning of new municipal infrastructure as well as identify what infrastructure requires attention, where to intervene, how to budget and when to introduce maintenance.”
Ward 126 Councilor Mike Tonkin was skeptical about the new system. He noted that he still had a number of outstanding complaints with the JRA. On the introduction of the new system Tonkin said, “I hope that the JRA can improve their standard of service delivery.”
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