Eight months later traffic lights at east intersection still not repaired
The unavailability of MV cables in the whole of Tshwane stores is preventing the cable rerouting project at Cussonia Avenue’s traffic lights.
Ongoing out-off-service traffic lights at the intersection of Cussonia Avenue and Stanza Bopape Street have yet to be addressed eight months later, despite numerous complaints from motorists and residents.
The non-working traffic lights at the intersection of Pretoria Road in Pretoria east have caused significant traffic congestion and frustration for motorists and commuters alike.
The traffic lights near the Pretoria Botanical Gardens have been out of service for over seven months now, leading to increased congestion and delays during peak hours, particularly for those travelling to and from Silverton and Meyerspark.
According to motorists, the road is used by taxi operators who sometimes drive recklessly and Tshwane bus services.
On some days there are no pointsmen to direct traffic.
Ward 46 councillor Pieter van Heerden previously said the issue with the traffic lights was caused by vandalism and theft of cables.
He previously said the traffic lights needed to be connected to a new safer place.
“I know the traffic lights have been off for months now due to vandalism at the electricity feeding kiosk,” said Van Heerden.
He said the city delayed repairs because it needed to move the kiosk to a safer location.
“For many months there have not been any medium voltage cables to supply power to the traffic lights.
According to the depot, they would have resolved this issue as a matter of urgency a long time ago had it not been for two major obstacles beyond its control, which it had openly raised multiple times in the past,” said Van Heerden.
Van Heerden said he had escalated the issue countless times to the city electricity department however they mentioned that they are facing some obstacles.
The two major challenges beyond the region’s control are as follows:
– Unavailability of MV cables in the whole of Tshwane stores that prevented this cable rerouting project at Cussonia. The challenge of MV cable unavailability is gradually improving though still trickling in small quantities in an unpredictable manner for project planning but no longer an obstacle.
– The depot also needed the service provider (SP) to execute this cable rerouting project which entails a network redesign, alteration and construction. There has not been any movement or improvement in resolving the unavailability of service providers.
Van Heerden said the Waltloo depot has taken measures to quickly solve this issue.
“In the absence of service providers Waltloo depot has engaged the Energy and Electricity Department (EED), Townships Development and Service Connections (TD&SC) to intervene working together with Sanral as an interested party that is also affected by the same mini sub vandalism.”
Van Heerden said the depot informed the EED and TD&SC to include the installation of a new mini-sub at Cussonia to supply these traffic lights to their plan.
He said the depot is expecting to receive the plan soon.
The Tshwane metro has yet to respond to an enquiry regarding the prolonged outage of traffic lights.
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