Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA)
For immediate release

The community of Milpark, Oakland Park and adjacent suburbs will soon have aquality public environment, implemented by the Johannesburg Development Agency on behalf of the City of Johannesburg. The upgrade will include the pedestrian sidewalks, street light upgrades, road upgrades, services upgrades, pedestrian bridge and soft and hard landscaping, pedestrian connections, upgrading of recreational facilities, development of public transport priority routes, linking the BRT stations and providing safe areas for pedestrians and informal traders. As a result the residents of Milpark Precinct and neighboring residents will experience, good walking and cycling opportunities, which are a key part of any sustainable transport and planning strategy, and provide an overall improvement of the quality of life.

The following roads will be affected in Ward 87 (1)Warbord Road, (2)Napier Street East, (3)Napier Street West and (4)Frank Brown Park, (5) Stanley Avenue(East and West), (6) Owl Street, as indicated in numeric below.

The Johannesburg Development Agency on behalf of the City of Johannesburg is implementing the Non-motorised transport (NMT), a key element of successfully encouraging clean urban transport. NMT is a very attractive mode of transport for relatively short distances, which make up the largest share of trips in Milpark Precinct, Oakland Park and adjacent suburbs.

This project is part of Milpark Precinct Development which forms part of the Empire Perth Corridor of Freedom. The Milpark Precinct has been identified by the City of Johannesburg as one of the main precinct of the Empire Perth Corridor. The main objective of this project is to implement NMT infrastructure in order to support and encourage pedestrian and cyclist mobility. Above this, is to promote pedestrian connectivity to all the Rea Vaya BRT Station and areas of public interest.

For ease of implementation this project has been divided into two phases and the pedestrian bridge will be implemented as a standalone project.

The scope of works for the 2017/18 financial year is to construct the NMT infrastructure and the pedestrian bridge, which comprise of extensive greening of the street scape, extensive provision of formalized parking, attractive hardwearing finishes, extensive lighting and street furniture provision, treatment of road surfaces at pedestrian crossings and use of the raised intersections where possible and soft and hard landscaping.

NMT project is the key to reversing the trend towards more private vehicle use is making walking and cycling attractive, together with improving public transport.

NMT is a highly cost-effective transportation strategy and brings about large health, economic and social co-benefits, particularly for the urban poor in the Milpark Precinct.

As a result, Non motorised project will benefit Milpark Precinct residents through:

  • Improve sidewalks, crosswalks, paths and networks.
  • Develop pedestrian oriented land use and building design.
  • Increase road and path connectivity, with special non motorised shortcuts
  • Traffic calming, streetscape improvements, traffic speed reductions, vehicle restrictions and road space reallocation (see ‘traffic management’).
  • Safety education, law enforcement and encouragement programs.
  • Address security concerns of pedestrians and cyclists.
  • Congestion pricing
  • Vehicle parking policies
  • Fuel taxes

The cost for the construction of the Milpark Precinct development is R34.8mil, the pedestrian bridge is R18.5mil and the total project cost is R43.3mil.

The Acting JDA CEO Christo Botes is confident that by 2018, the implementation of Milpark will be complete and the Precinct will bring people to the jobs and jobs to the people” Given Milpark’s location and accessibility advantages, both through its road connectivity and the Rea Vaya BRT link to the CBD and Soweto. Also I will offer a range of choices and opportunity to people who live, work, shop, socialise, visit or access services there.

Issued by:

Johannesburg Development Agency
Susan Monyai
Email: smonyai@jda.org.za
Tel: 011 688 7867