Blinking traffic lights on rainy days and the traffic chaos accompanying them may soon be a thing of the past.
That's because the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has begun rolling out re-cabling at traffic-heavy intersections.
City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba announced in his 2016/17 adjustment budget for the city that a R6 million budget would be allocated to replace cabling in the 'No join' policy.
“Each ‘join’ in the cabling of a traffic light is an electrical weakness in the circuit that makes it vulnerable to rain‚ electrical surges and lightening‚” said the JRA's Darryl Thomas.
The JRA has 2 135 in the city and will replace cabling for 180 traffic signals a year over the next three years.
In efforts to controlling and minimising traffic congestions in the city the JRA has also introduced a smart traffic system that accurately identifies signal faults and diagnoses the root causes.
Thomas said the agency has installed modems on traffic signals that allow the faults to be directly logged onto the smart traffic system.
“This remote monitoring system allows us to analyse the situation and send the correct technical staff out to fix the problem at a faster pace‚” said Thomas.
The JRA maintains that theft of infrastructure and accidents downing traffic poles as well as power outages remain its biggest challenges.
- TMG Digital/The Times
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