Work has finally started on the sinkhole that caused a section of the R501 (between Carletonville and the N14) to be closed for some time. The road (which links Carletonville with the N14 main route, between Krugersdorp and Ventersdorp) has been closed since February 2014 after a sinkhole fell in on one side. Although the road surface had not caved in, authorities closed off the road because the sinkhole extended underneath the surface. Since then, various promises were made regarding the time it would take to repair. In September 2014, the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport MEC, Mr Ishmail Vadi, indicated in a written reply to the DA, that his department intended to repair the sinkhole during September and October 2014. This deadline, however, came and went without anything being done about the matter. In October last year, an official of the Gauteng roads and transport department, Ms Renilwe Malemela, indicated that plans to repair the road were in the tender process. On Wednesday, 2 March, employees of the department’s construction section from Heidelberg started filling up the sinkhole with rocks obtained from a nearby farm. “It will take us about three months to do the work as we have to wait for the rocks to settle before filling the sinkhole up further,” Mr Deon Erasmus, a roads and transport official, told the Herald on Tuesday. According to Erasmus, only personnel and equipment belonging to this department are being used in the project. The process took longer than expected because private contractors, who originally tendered to do the work, did not have the expertise to adequately complete the task. In the end, is was decided that the government would do it themselves. By Monday, trucks were already driving up and down between the sinkhole and the farm – filling it up with rocks. Officials from the roads and transport department cautioned that motorists driving past the site should heed the traffic signs to ensure their safety and the safety of employees working at the site. “We are very happy that the sinkhole is being filled up at last as residents have been inconvenienced for a long time,” a councillor of the area who has struggled with authorities over the matter for some time, Ms Judy Rossouw, told the Herald, Rossouw said, however, that a vehicle that was supposed to be used in the project
was stolen from another project in Vereeniging during the week. This may slow down work.
