Smart City is a solution that has enabled the roads agency to develop a complete view of the city’s roads inventory in a modernised fashion befitting of a world-class African city.
More than 1.6 million images and locations of about 700 000 bridges, street names, and storm water infrastructure have been captured onto the system for effortless tracking, monitoring and management.
Smart City is a customised and web-based application that has been developed for the agency to enable easy searches and improve the capacity to retrieve information. By linking information and layering data by ward, region and type, the Smart City application enables JRA to take informed decisions and generate relevant reports.
Councillor Christine Walters, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Transport said, “The new innovation will result in improved service delivery to the public, and better management and planning capabilities for JRA by monitoring and managing infrastructure development.
“The last audit of road infrastructure assets was conducted in 2007. With Johannesburg ever expanding, difficulties arose in the past in maintenance, budgeting and planning.”
The good news is not only that JRA can respond quicker to issues relating to infrastructure, but also that R99 million has been allocated to improve the roads and infrastructure in Region B as part of a resurfacing programme in seven regions.
The programme includes patching potholes and the resurfacing of roads in areas such as Parktown, Mayfair, Windsor, Albertville, Blairgowrie, Bryanston, Bosmont, Coronationville, Cresta, Emmarentia, Greenside, Hurlingham and other suburbs.
Councillor Steven Kruger of Ward 72 which includes suburbs in the North Eastern Tribune distribution area said, “Fifty percent of the roads within Ward 72 need to be resurfaced. However, a number of roads have been resurfaced in the last six months.” Kruger said plans were in place for the next three years to improve the infrastructure of the roads in the area.
JRA acting managing director, Mpho Kau, said the programme would focus on maintenance rather than construction to attend to potentially problematic road surfaces before they deteriorate and cost the City more. “On a daily basis, we carry out road infrastructure maintenance, including the maintenance of pavements and footways, and of the stormwater systems,” Kau added.
