Melrose road issues on JRA’s radar
After six years of Melrose residents enquiring about when their roads will be addressed and fixed, it appears the Johannesburg Roads Agency is taking steps to address the issues.
Melrose residents are still seeking answers regarding the state of their roads. The Melrose Ratepayers Association (MRA) said they have been diligently working through the official channels (ward councillor, Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) officials, public meetings, emails) for the last six years to address road safety issues as well as the quality of roads in Melrose.
The Gazette had on May 15 published an online article titled The roads in Melrose give residents and motorists no joy whereby some of the problematic roads in the suburb were highlighted with the JRA saying they would respond to logged references on the roads.
“Given the re-zoning of Rosebank and Oxford Road, Melrose has seen an increase in the volume and speed of traffic through our roads. This has resulted in a high number of frequent and severe accidents on our roads given the poor road safety measures. As a committee we are now being inundated by Melrose residents to ‘take matters into our own hands’ given the absolute incompetence and lack of any action by JRA on attending to these important matters,” said Ashish Desai on behalf of the MRA. They, however, said as a ratepayers’ association, they cannot endorse taking the law into their own hands.
- On August 14, ward 74 councillor Belinda Echeozonjoku said she had done a drive-through with the JRA to attend to the problematic areas especially where there are frequent accidents that happen as a result of speeding and places with no traffic signs. She said she would provide feedback as soon as she received it.
- On August 15, JRA spokesperson Bertha Scheepers said the JRA is committed to addressing road safety concerns and to fostering a safer road environment for all residents. “The JRA’s Traffic Engineering Department has investigated all the road safety requests received,” said Scheepers.
Regarding the petition for traffic calming measures at the St Vincent School for the Deaf in Melrose, the recommendations from the traffic investigation were approved for the following solutions for known road safety problem areas as well as recommendations for education, enforcement and engineering interventions:
- Traffic calming interventions to be implemented in the form of speed humps along Jellicoe Lane and Tottenham Avenue as well as the conversion of the existing pedestrian crossing along Jellicoe Lane to a raised pedestrian crossing.
- JMPD to address the issue of scholar patrol at the school as well as targeted enforcement along the route which will alert motorists to be aware of their actions.
- Road safety and outreach programmes speaking to road user behaviour and improving the safety of all road users.
Scheepers added that the JRA depot has also been requested to improve road markings along Bompas and Oxford roads. The Traffic Engineering Department also approved a privately funded and constructed submission for pedestrian improvements at Biermann Avenue and Oxford Road including sidewalk upgrades.
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