E-tolls fund Sanral, JMPD co-operation
JRA must pave the way
THE SOUTH African National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) assists the City of Joburg with its congestion and other traffic problems, says Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona.
Mona said in the metropolitan area, over the past three years, Sanral had attended to more than 10 000 accidents, provided medical assistance at more than 3 700 crashes and paramedical treatment for over 1 000 critically or seriously injured people.
In addition, assistance was provided in more than 18 000 instances where vehicles broke down. This included the free towing of stranded vehicles away from the traffic flow.
“This is possible because of the development over the past decade of an intelligent transport system, which provides the information on which co-operation with local metro police forces is built.
“It keeps road users informed of traffic conditions, flows and possible hazards and enables rapid reaction,” he said.
“We and the Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metro
KEITH PEACOCK OF OBSERVATORY WRITES:
There are two outstanding issues which are now over 10 months old and still no action. Some time ago, City Power dug up two sections of pavement.
It should have reported it to the Johannesburg Roads Agency, but didn’t because it has not been repaired.
This is the pavement outside 17 Gill Street and the pavement on the north-east corner of the intersection of Urania and Innes streets in Observatory.
This has not been actioned and I should be grateful if this would be treated as a priority.
Thank you for bringing the matter to
THE JRA REPLIES:
police are co-operating from the intelligent transport centre in Midrand where the freeway network is monitored with CCTV and incidents attended to by a fleet of paramedical, JRA’s attention.
Reinstatements to the pavements concerned were done on October 12. We sincerely apologise for the long duration it took to reinstate the pavements.
The JRA encourages residents to report issues concerning road and stormwater issues to 0860 562 874/ hotline@jra.org.za / twitter @MyJra or via our awardwinning JRA Find&Fix mobile app, so that we may be of service. incident management and towing vehicles operated by Sanral,” he said.
This service is provided at no cost to road users, irrespective of whether they are e-toll paying customers or not.
“It is thus unfortunate that the mayor attacked the revenue stream (e-tolls) which is paying for these services – not exactly in the co-operative spirit in which we work with officials from his administration.
“We hope this co-operation will continue – it’s a vital service provided to people in need and to improve road safety.
“Working together has led to the reduction in the duration of incidents – from the time they are detected until traffic is flowing again – by more than 30 percent. As a result, all users of the freeway network are benefiting,” he said.
There are also other areas where Sanral is providing the city with technical engineering assistance.
Most important remained the joint objective to manage congestion and implement workable projects to ensure traffic didn’t come to a standstill, an unfortunate reality within the next five to seven years as the next phases of improvements to the network had stalled due to resistance to e-tolls, said Mona.