When will the Northmead water tower be completed?

Jeff Jane writes:

You ran articles regarding the incomplete water tower in Northmead in which you spoke to a council employee.

The answer’s given by the spokesman was somewhat inconclusive.

The contractor chosen is never going to complete the project.

My question is when adjudication of the tenderers was carried out, was the chosen contractor experienced in this type of project?

Were progress payments made as the project progressed or was the full payment made upfront?

To now find a civil contractor to complete the project is going to cost the ratepayers a large sum of money as he will be carrying the risk for work that he did not carry out. He cannot check the reinforcing that has been used in the structure and the grade of concrete used.

Did the council have a suitable clerk of works to oversee the project to protect the interests of the ratepayers?

Please try and establish from the council as to when the water tower will ever be completed.

Is this another Pretoria road debacle?

Editor’s note:

Spokesperson of the Ekurhuleni metro Zweli Dlamini said the contractor was chosen through a competitive bidding process compliant with legislation and met all the required criteria.

“All payments for such contracts are paid in arrears as the Municipal Finance Management Act does not allow advance payments before work is done and the contractor was paid for work only until the contract was terminated,” said Dlamini.

“The project was terminated at the point where the previous contractor was about to start the construction of the elevated 5.5 mega-litre reservoir. This ensures that the actual reservoir is guaranteed by the new contractor in the event there are any leaks.

“The new contractor will be appointed using his/her competitive bidding rates in compliance with the relevant legal contractual prescripts.

“The foundation piles, foundation, columns, and reservoir platform supporting the yet-to-be-built elevated reservoir all passed the minimum 35 Mega Pascal compressive strength and the reinforcement met the minimum tensile strength of 460 N/mm2 and the results are available for any type of scrutiny.

“Therefore, there is no remedial work for the work done thus far although the tower is not complete. In fact, save for the poor performance, the quality of work done by the previous contractor is of very high quality open to any scrutiny.

“The project was managed by a professionally registered engineer with a Master’s degree in engineering and the clerk of works for the project was very well qualified to have a Bachelor’s degree in engineering as well.

“The project will be completed in June 2022 as the process of assigning a new contractor is well advanced.”

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