City ensures safety for road users
To improve visibility at night, small beads are added to the paint.
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) is working alongside the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) to improve the safety of all road users by upgrading road markings.
The CoJ Executive Mayor, councillor Herman Mashaba, stated that road markings are among the most important ways of maintaining high levels of safety, as well enabling ease of road use by both pedestrians and drivers. In order to achieve this, the road markings must be clearly visible.
Visibility depends primarily on the contrast between the markings and the adjacent portions of the road surface.
A number of different road-marking products are available in South Africa. In the past solvent-based paint was sprayed onto the road surface at high pressure. These markings were particularly thin and not durable.“
In a bid to improve the quality of road markings the City introduced new materials that are believed to be more durable. The ever-increasing traffic volumes have necessitated the increased use of thermoplastic material that can be sprayed to a thickness of some 1,4mm, providing a significantly more durable marking,” he said. Small beads are added to the paint to improve night-time visibility.
There are approximately 1 169 kilometres of gravel roads in the city, 90 per cent of which are in townships or informal settlements.
“To completely eradicate all gravel roads within the city, we would require an investment of approximately R8,1 billion. The JRA’s ongoing campaign to address the matter will go a long way towards improving road safety and overall user experience for residents of the city,” Mashaba added.
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