Most bridges near collapse

JOBURG: 'NO MAINTENANCE AS 702 ARE IN 'IMMINENT DANGER OF STRUCTURA FAILURE

- Jabulile Mbatha

Four in five bridges in the country"s economic powerhouse are unsafe, with Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) admitting that the bridges are in "imminent danger of structural failure and require substantial renewal or upgrading". JRA told The Citizen out of 902 bridges in Johannesburg, 702 were in a poor or very poor condition. This came after Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage revealed 25% of bridges were unsafe to cross. Duvenage said the state of bridges and roads was due to lack of essential maintenance. He blamed "poor leadership in the city - and more specifically the J RA". However, JRA said its biggest challenge for failing to maintain the bridges is because of limited funds, as per allocation per financial year. JRA said it uses a Visual Conditions Index (VCI) to categorise bridges and road conditions. The scale ranges from very good and good, to fair, poor or very poor. The agency"s head of infrastructure planning, Musa Mkhacane, said very poor means an "asset is in imminent danger of structural failure and requires substantial renewal or upgrading with less than 10% of expected useful life (EUL) remaining". A list of 12 bridges that were categorised as very poor are in the areas of Roodepoort, Randburg, Lyndhurst, Buccleuch, Florida, Grobler Park, Ruimsig and different parts of Soweto, JRA said. One of the taxi drivers operating in Johannesburg, Lungile Khumalo, said he had been driving for 25 years and used Main Reef Road in Florida on a daily basis. "The last time these bridges and roads were fine was about 20 years ago. Ever since, they got ruined