Roadworks pose safety hazard

RESIDENTS in Bowen Avenue, Glenmore, are concerned about safety and poor workmanship of roadworks in the road.

Resident Phil Kay, raised concerns over the quality of workmanship. He said When the roadworks first commenced, the pavements were removed and instead of building new pavements with pavement blocks and gutters, the pavements were smoothed over with tar and no gutters were built.

“We are shocked by the workmanship. When we queried why the pavements were reinstated this way, we were told there were no pavement blocks available. With no gutters, where will the water go? This terrible workmanship is degrading our neighbourhood,” he said.

Kay said there was also an incident where an electric bolt, as tall as a tree, erupted from the ground, and shook the surrounding houses.

“My wife was waiting for her lift right there, just two hours before it happened. If it had happened then, she would have been killed! We reported it and the municipality came two days later and put danger tape around the site. We, as residents, will not be happy until an electrical engineer has inspected this site and can assure us it is safe and the site is sealed correctly. Someone could be killed,” he said.

He said the roadworks were on the corner of the road and presented a safety hazard, as there was no signage to warn motorists of roadworks ahead.

“It’s an accident waiting to happen! In the morning it is chaos, with motorists hooting at each other. More than half of the one lane is taken up by roadworks. Motorists can’t see approaching cars and drive on the wrong side of the road as they have no option. There is no signage warning that the roadworks are ahead and it is dangerous, especially at night,” he said.

Kay called a meeting last week with councillors Nicole Graham and DA PR councillor Halalisani Ndlovu.

He said they were appalled that taxpayers’ money was paying for this work.

“They said they would be calling a meeting to do something about this,” he said.

Councillor Ndlovu said: “I have written to officials to get answers regarding this matter as this is now a safety hazard for the community. There have been two separate instances of electric explosions at this site, which begs the question as to which engineer signed off this work. We should deal with this matter urgently before we have a casualty on our hands.”

Mike Baldav, water complaints assessor from eThekwini’s Water and Sanitation Department, said the electricity department was currently working on site.

“They are repairing a cable that was damaged, possibly by the load shedding as per the supervisor on site. He envisaged that the repair work would be concluded within two weeks. Regarding the safety of the road, there is permanent signage placed on the roads and the supervisor did advise he would speak to his superior to have more effective signage warnings,” he said.

He said the spoil that was on the verge would be removed at the completion of the repairs, andwas assured by the supervisor that the road would also be reinstated to its original state after the repairs.

“I am unfortunately unable to comment on the workmanship issue as this is not water related,” he said.