Unlike the Nelson Mandela Bridge, the Queen Elizabeth Bridge sits in one of the city's most challenging precincts adjacent to a taxi rank, a park frequented by homeless people, and roads thick with commuter traffic. Jozi My Jozi leaned in anyway.

Led by landscape architects Landarch and supported by FNB, the City of Joburg, Gauteng province, the Johannesburg Roads Agency, and community organisations, the restoration has tackled the basics with rigour: pressure washing walls and paving; 5,300 bricks from Corobrik to repair the adjacent park; new flowerbeds and hardscaping; lighting from Ledvance; repainted road markings; and new benches and bins on the bridge itself.

It hasn't been simple. Initially, taxi drivers and park residents pushed back. But attitudes shifted and local man Percy Mnguni has become a self-appointed guardian, personally protecting building materials and keeping the park clean.

The physical work is matched by a bold creative vision. Murals and steel sculptures by award-winning illustrator, Lazi Mathebula, celebrate the everyday Joburg characters who use this bridge. At the park's edge, the Fire Walker, an 11-metre statue by William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx depicting a woman with a brazier on her head, is being restored by Moja Nation.

Jozi My Jozi has also partnered with MES, a homelessness organisation, ensuring the renewal includes not excludes the city's most vulnerable.

The Queen Elizabeth Bridge is more than a renovation. It's proof that Joburg's renewal can hold complexity and beauty at the same time.