Follow-up: Flicker of hope for busy traffic intersection
After many months and a lot of work, the robots are close to working.
Despite some minor setbacks, the traffic lights on the Heidelberg Road and Airport Drive intersection near the Mall@Carnival should be working soon. In February, the Brakpan Herald reported that the mall was adopting the traffic lights at this busy crossing.
The robot should initially have been repaired within four weeks from the announcement by a contractor approved and appointed by the mall, who also paid for the repairs, but a delay in the arrival of the new control box set back the repairs by months.
On Friday, the contractor and his team connected the traffic lights, replaced two stolen poles and tested the new control box. By Saturday afternoon, the lights worked.
On Monday, however, more work was needed, and by Tuesday morning, the contractor had to return to find and fix a fault in the connection because the lights were again out of order.
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The memorandum of understanding agreement was between the mall and the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and was brokered by Freedom Front Plus Clr Riaan van Zyl. It is the first of its kind in Ekurhuleni.
The mall will pay for the repairs and supply security to protect the new equipment, move the control box onto the mall’s premises for better safekeeping and ensure the robot works during load-shedding, which the department would pay for.
Only on Tuesday did the department say it was compiling a purchase order to move the control box and would update mall management on its completion.
The contractor worked on the robots on Tuesday. The repairs were unfinished at the time of publication. He said moving the control box would take about four days, and the robots would be on and off during that time.
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Once moved, there should be no interruptions. Graphite Security, contracted by the mall, will erect four cameras fixed on the robot for added safety from vandals and thieves.
These repairs couldn’t come at a better time because the out-of-order lights caused many accidents at the intersection.
Notably, 10-year-old Blessing Onoh from Brakpan was killed on Good Friday while trying to cross the road. Another accident happened on Friday when the contractor and his team were working on the lights.
While there were no injuries, the crash tipped a bakkie on its side. This vehicle had just been repaired after a previous accident at the same intersection.
