Construction of Rea Vaya’s infrastructure is visible across the City. But what happens behind the scenes when engineers, city planners and construction teams get to work every day?

To create the infrastructure for a world-class public transport system such as Rea Vaya, the City uses the best in technology, including a machine called the “Ditch Witch” and a construction company working 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

Building the dedicated BRT lanes has also lead to major service upgrades and ways to minimise disruption for future infrastructure upgrades. Because of the weight of the 12 ton articulated buses, the BRT lanes have more asphalt layers than normal roads, increasing the lifespan of tar roads in the Inner City to about 15 years.

In addition, the construction company has inserted four sleeves along BRT routes, with one spare for future infrastructure upgrades. This means these roads need not be dug up if new cabling has to be installed later on.

In many instances, construction of roads could only be started after service infrastructure were moved or upgraded. This means the service infrastructure in the Inner City is also receiving a much needed overhaul for the first time in over 60 years.