The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is rolling out a massive re-cabling project to reduce traffic light faults around the city.

Through the No-Joints Policy, which was introduced in March, the JRA has successfully re-cabled 30 of the 200 intersections earmarked for work this financial year.

The policy aims to progressively reduce high incidence of signal downtime at the most critical high-volume intersections city wide.

According to Member of the Mayoral Committee for Transport, Cllr. Nonhlanhla Makhuba the roads agency has set aside a R45 million capex budget as part of the 2017/2018 implementation programme. The roll out involves the removal of old and damaged joints which lead to repeated faults, most prevalent during rain.

Reduced faults

“JRA has made great strides identifying key intersections which are major contributors to congestion across the city. The project will see the re-cabling of 40 intersections from July- October 2017, 30 from November – December 2017, 50 from January – March 2018 and 80 from April – June 2018,”the Councillor explains.

The JRA says all fault types, with the exception of power faults, have seen a reduction to date. Since last November, power outages have increased from over 30% to over 50% in September 2017.  Analysis of JRA’s traffic fault statistics reveals that technical faults contributed to 20% overall faults in November 2016.

Technical faults and smart solutions

Over the last nine months, technical faults have seen a 6% reduction, and at present stand at 14%. In addressing power outages, the city has established a closer relationship between JRA, City Power and Eskom to improve turnaround time to restore power.

JRA has implemented a Smart Traffic System which includes remote monitoring of the traffic signals to ensure that faults are detected and immediately, technicians dispatched and repairs carried out.

Since the implementation of the Smart Traffic System, 75% of faults have been detected by remote monitoring system and proactive maintenance by JRA technicians. The turnaround time per fault repair by JRA technicians is at present at 21 hours.

“Efforts are underway to employ additional traffic signal technicians to improve pro-active maintenance and diagnosis of repeat faults. We are implementing the use of alternative materials to reduce copper content in cables in our fight against theft and vandalism,” the agency concludes.