A storm water cover on the corner of King Edward Street and Kitchener Avenue has finally been fixed, two years later.
According to ANC PR councillor Alison Roberts, the open storm water drain was reported by residents as it posed a danger to pedestrians. A woman walking back from work was recently injured when she fell into it.
Street guard, Gift Ndlovu, found the trapped woman. “She was walking back from work. She was trying to avoid a car and because it was dark she did not notice the open storm water drain. She fell in and broke her leg,” explained Ndlovu. He said the incident happened around 6pm.
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As a resident in the area, Roberts said she was disappointed that someone had to be hurt before the grid was replaced. She said, “We have reported it before because of the danger it posed, especially to the children playing in the streets because they can easily fall in. It has been like this for almost two years now.
“Thank you to Johannesburg Road Agency for finally attending to the storm water grid on King Edward and Kitchener and I hope they will be fixing all open storm water drains in the area.”
Joburg East Express sent an enquiry to Johannesburg Road Agency about why it took them two years to replace the grid.
Marketing and communications spokesperson, Bertha Peters-Scheepers said, “JRA has no records in their system of a service request reported for a missing grid at this specific intersection. All reported issues are provided with a reference number for follow-ups.”
She added that JRA sincerely regrets the accident. “JRA’s policy is to ensure issues such as these are made safe as a temporary measure with a yellow barrier to alert the public to the danger,” explained Peters-Scheepers.
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She said when a service request is reported they always try to make the area safe within four hours of it being reported. However, in many cases, the yellow safety barriers are stolen.
Peters-Scheepers said they are faced with a constant battle because the steel grids are stolen for resale. “The steel grids are now being replaced with grids made of polymer, however, until criminals realise this new material has a low resale value, they are also being stolen, resulting in many open storm water drains endangering the lives of pedestrians.
“The issue of theft of grids extends to many other road infrastructures such as guard rails, signage, manhole covers, equipment for traffic signals such as copper wire, poles, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply.” She said this is a form of economic sabotage which endangers the lives of road users and costs the City millions to replace.
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