Road into Welverdiend a health hazard
This road is a nightmare that authorities has neglected for years.
The main road that leads into Welverdiend over the railway tracks is a safety hazard in more ways than one.
This road has been in a terrible state for years because it is not regularly maintained by the Gauteng Provincial Roads Department, which is responsible for its upkeep. The problem is made worse by the large number of heavy trucks that drive on it. Truck drivers coming from the N14 have been using the road through Welverdiend for decades, as this saves them having to go over the weigh bridge on the N12 just outside Potchefstroom.
Unfortunately, the road over the railway tracks is the main route that many of Welverdiend’s residents also have to use to get home. Because of the many potholes, unemployed people from the area, and in many cases children, have been filling the potholes on the first section of this road with gravel, which they dig from the sidewalk.
This has, however, been continuing for such a long time that large holes have been dug open on the sidewalk next to the fence between the road and the railway tracks. In some places these holes are deep enough for an adult to stand in without their head sticking over the side. These massive holes, together with vandalism, have also started to cause the palisade fence next to the railway line to collapse in places.
As the area is also dolomitic, the holes can also lead to sinkholes if water continually dams up in it and erodes the porous dolomite rocks underneath. There is also a possibility that one of the holes can collapse on one of the “helpers” taking gravel from it.
Because of these hazards, the Herald took the issue to the Merafong City Local Municipality, who previously put up the palisade fence between the road and the railway tracks and the Gauteng Roads Department, who is responsible for the road’s maintenance.
“The only work that can be done there is pothole patching. The road has been or will be referred to the design section for future upgrades. Currently we do not have sufficient funds to do a light rehab solution on the road,” answered the Gauteng Roads Department of Roads and Transport’s Regional Manager from Krugersdorp, Ms Bulelwa Thomas.
She also mentioned that the department will ask help from their contractor to see how the problems can be addressed. No answers were received from the municipality.
