JRA adopts Web-based system to improve infrastructure maintenance

Posted on : Thursday , 8th October 2015

A recently introduced Smart City solution has enabled the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to develop a complete view of the city’s roads inventory, with over 1.6-million images and 700 000 locations of JRA assets being captured onto the system for tracking, monitoring and management.
City of Johannesburg MMC for Transport Christine Walters noted that the new innovation would result in improved service delivery to the public and better management and planning capabilities for the JRA. “The last audit of road infrastructure assets was conducted in 2007. It is often forgotten that Johannesburg is a dynamic, ever expanding city with new assets constantly being created. “This has resulted in difficulties in the past in terms of management, maintenance, budgeting and planning. It was problematic to take decisions without access to the most recent and accurate information,” Walters added. This prompted the JRA to conduct a comprehensive survey to verify and update its asset information. The year-long programme used field workers recruited from the community and offered employment to more than 50 people. “The data is now available to the JRA within the geographic information system and resulted in an improved ability to pick up defects in all the regions, improved proactive maintenance planning and reduced maintenance times, enhanced road conditions and [better] traffic management,” JRA acting MD Mpho Kau highlighted. He added that the Smart City solution was a critical determinant of the JRA’s ability to achieve its goal of improving the city’s roads infrastructure. “Assets captured on the system are searchable and updates can be tracked,” he said, adding that a customised and Web-based application was developed to enable easy searches and improve the capacity to retrieve information. “By linking information, layering data and filtering assets by ward, region and type, the Smart City application enables the JRA to make informed decisions and generate relevant reports. Moreover, all assets on the Smart City solution can be visualised and their aesthetics examined,” Kau said. The database of the agency’s assets was comprehensively updated with geotagged labels, photographs and standardised asset categories and identifications. “The system has sufficient storage capacity to keep complete document and visual records of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sidewalks. Through the system, we are now able to inform the planning of new municipal infrastructure, as well as identify what infrastructure requires attention, where to intervene, how to budget and when to introduce maintenance,” he pointed out. Meanwhile, the JRA reported that, since 2007, it had seen a 8 344% increase in road furniture assets from 5 342 to 451 103; a 283% increase in stormwater infrastructure assets from 69 255 to 265 405; gravel roads decreased by 39.3% from 2 015.5 km to 1 223.6 km; surfaced roads increased by 14% from 9 050.6km to 10 306.2 km; 1 863 bridges were recorded city-wide, of which JRA was responsible for 812; and 55 550 street kerb names and 10 171 street sign names were recorded. Further planned developments – including artists’ impressions – would be uploaded on the Smart City solution to reassert the JRA’s position as a transparent roads agency.