New bridge not the only solution to traffic
Relief is in sight for motorists who endure the chaos at the Conrad Drive/Jan Smuts Avenue intersection each day.
The City of Johannesburg has budgeted R15 million to solve the problems. However, a local traffic engineer who is among the daily sufferers pointed out that if the bridge over the Braamfontein Spruit was simply replaced, there would be little to no benefit.
“The bridge is not the problem during morning peak traffic,” said Brian Seger. “Anyone can prove that for themselves by checking how many cars cross the bridge and then get through the green light in one go. Answer? None, which is as it should be. Too long a green phase would be detrimental to the overall capacity of the intersection.”
He said that in the evening it was a different story.
“Then the Hillcrest lights are so close to the bridge that the left-hand lane can only hold five cars. After that it is single file traffic. Widening the bridge on that side would add only five more cars to the queue.”
Seger said that to be effective, the left-hand northbound lane needed to be extended to the Hackle Brook entrance to maximise queue length.
“Even then it will only be served by the one lane exit off Jan Smuts Avenue. To be most effective, the signals at Burnside Avenue should be removed and return Burnside and Athole Avenues to being two-way roads. Then there will be two lanes serving Conrad Drive northbound instead of one.”
Seger added that the traffic signals at Burnside Avenue were a major cause of congestion in the morning.
“They operate in tandem with Conrad, and the space for cars turning out of Conrad is too limited. Getting rid of those signals and closing the median break there is the very first thing that should happen, and won’t cost R15 million. Then extend the southbound kerbside lane of Jan Smuts back to the bridge over the Spruit. Add a second lane across Jan Smuts from Conrad into Athole to compensate for the lane that will become westbound from Athole to Conrad. Simple really.”
