Johannesburg residents can anticipate a brighter skyline when repairs to the magnificently illuminated Coca-Cola billboard, which was damaged in a windstorm last year, are complete, said the company on Friday.
Khotso Kekana, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, told the Mail & Guardian Online that certain areas of the billboard are under reconstruction and ”if all goes well and weather permitting, we hope to have the sign in working order by end of April”.
The impressive billboard — the biggest light-emitting diode (LED) billboard in the southern hemisphere — is situated on top of the Marble Towers Building, corner of Von Wielligh and Pritchard streets, in downtown Johannesburg.
It consists of 7 250 LED tubes. The four-sided sign towers 140m above the ground.
Kekana said: ”The sub-contracting team are busy commissioning the eastern, western and southern sides, but are not progressing as quickly as they would like due to the electrical wiring that was damaged during the incident and the huge number of LED tubes, which have recently arrived from overseas.”
The billboard was built and certified to handle wind speeds of 120kph but winds in excess of 200kph caused it to be damaged last year.
”Hundreds of LED tubes were demolished as well as the steel structure,” he added.
”The structure has been strengthened further as a result of the recent damage and we have engaged the services of top structural engineers to look into getting the structure to be able to withstand climatic forces such as those experienced last year.
”The billboard is an investment in the Johannesburg city centre by Coca-Cola and we are committed to the city’s rejuvenation.
”The billboard is dynamic and flexible, and will be utilised to bring relevant information to the city’s residents — music-concert news, soccer scores and footage, new-year countdowns, happy holidays messaging etc.”
It took 15 artisans and three engineers eight consecutive weeks to mount the LED tubes and test each joint last year. It has been described as one of ”Jozi’s biggest turn-ons” according to Coca-Cola in a press release last year.