The continuing effects of load shedding on traffic and congestion, particularly at the large intersections in Ballito, have been an ongoing concern and priority item for the DOCRRA team. The team has had numerous meetings with KDM Metro to discuss pointsmen solutions.
In addition to the normal hot spots of congestion due to peak-hour traffic, there are varying load shedding and electricity outages to contend with.
KDM have drafted additional staff from other duties and added 7 new officers in recent months to try to improve pointsmen coverage. In addition, the ward councillors and DOCRRA have been given direct access to the joint operations group which has been a great help to escalate issues and get feedback.
The issue that occurred on Monday, 13 March 2023, was that officers had to be deployed to the areas where striking nurses were demonstrating and no spare officers were available to cover the traffic. Later that afternoon, the pointsmen were back on duty at the Virgin Active intersection.
DOCRRA has also explored various “privatised” pointsmen solutions with KDM. The solution provided by a well-known insurance company in other areas has been researched extensively and could not be implemented in our area, despite KDM agreement to the concept in principle, because the financial model wasn’t viable. The current medium-term solution from KDM is the establishment of a new Law Enforcement team which shall be referred to as “the men in blue”. This concept has gone through various processes already, and the final approval is imminent. These law enforcement officers will be able to be deployed on short notice and will be trained to police and enforce KDM bylaws. They will also be trained as pointsmen and will dramatically improve coverage. DOCRRA is monitoring this closely and estimate that they could be deployed during the third quarter of 2023.
The more immediate good news is that there is an initiative to link some traffic light clusters to solar power. The first one at the Virgin Active intersection is imminent. Thereafter, two more will be implemented along the Ballito Drive road between Lifestyle and Junction malls. This will mitigate congestion during loadshedding and electricity outages.
DOCRRA can assure the community that every effort is being made by a wide range of structures and organisations to solve the congestion issues we experience far too frequently.
For more info, please contact us on admin@docrra.co.za .
