Paving his own way in Fairleads
A Fairleads resident has maintained Middle Road, where he resides, for the past 10 years, using tar-patching mixtures he makes at his paint factory in Petit.
Con Lotriet, owner of Silkon Paint, in Petit, patches the tar using his own team and out of his own pocket.
“Council often just fills the holes with sand and then puts a thin layer of bitumen over that, which just washes away with the first major rains,” Lotriet said.
“Things would look much better if everyone (residents) just did their share and did some work around them, instead of moaning all the time.”
Lotriet was recently experimenting with new mixtures and at the time of the interview, on Saturday, February 13, he said he had “finally gotten it right”, explaining that the latest version – the 15th – set within a few hours and was much tougher than tar.
During a recent oversight visit to inspect the condition of roads in Fairleads, Clr Stefanie Kruger (Ward 27) and Member of the Provincial Legislature Michele Clarke (DA constituency head for Benoni) exuded dissatisfaction with the state of roads in Fairleads.
“I have been reporting this issue to the Ekurhuleni Roads Department since July 2014 and was informed today (January 20) that the department has funds available to fix these roads,” said Kruger.
“I will continue to monitor the progress made by the roads department and put pressure on the department to start reconstruction as soon as possible.”
Tanya Heydenrych, the DA’s provincial media officer, with the input of Clarke and Kruger, said, on the day of the oversight visit, that the roads in Fairleads are sand-sealed and expire every five years.
“As a result, these roads cannot be repaired by way of re-tarring, but have to be reconstructed,” said Heydenrych.
“There is also no storm-water system in this area and, as a result, the temporary tar-patching washes away every time it rains.”
Clarke said the riddled roads not only caused traffic problems, but also had a negative effect on local businesses, whose customers are not always willing to navigate the roads.
Kabelo Mahonko, from Crystal Park said the roads in her neck of the woods aren’t much better.
“There is construction being done at a few roads in the area, but mostly holes are just filled up, instead of being completely redone,” Mahonko said.
Rudolph van Zyl, a Fairleads resident, said the roads are often used by trucks, greatly contributing to their deterioration, especially Sports Road.
“The edges of Sports Road have slowly chipped away, which has reduced the road’s drivable space so that one car has to pull to the side of the road when there’s another coming from the opposite direction,” van Zyl explained.
“We pay rates and taxes here, but get almost nothing in return; we have sporadic water supply, no sewerage and terrible roads.”
Van Zyl suggested that more restrictions be placed on trucks in the area, as “the roads are clearly not designed for them”.
According to Kruger and Clarke, many of Benoni’s infrastructure problems arise from new developments. They added that developers are required by law to pay a fee, which the municipality should use to upgrade the infrastructure in a particular area, to accommodate the planned construction.
EMM was approached for comment, but none had been received at the time of publication.
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