WARD 18 councillor, Bruce Sutcliffe, is urging motorists travelling through Pinetown to please bear with the upgrade of roads and preparation for the GO Durban’s bus rapid transport system (BRTS) and upgrade of Kings Road.
“Having attended various meetings relating to the above, I wish to ask residents and commuters to be patient with regard to the road upgrades happening in Pinetown.
“There will be major road works happening in the Pinetown CBD for the next year and a half and these will cause traffic disruptions in two of the major roads,” said Sutcliffe.
He is urging residents and motorists to find alternative routes where possible to minimise pressure on these two roads as well as to assist the contractor by obeying all signs and deviations.
The first project relates to the GO Durban BRTS and this concerns two contracts – the first being the section from Dinkelman Road to the intersection of Beviss and Josiah Gumede (Old Main) Road, and the second contract being the section along Josiah Gumede (Old Main) Road from Beviss Road to and along Anderson Street.
The final outcome of the project will be a road with two lanes on either side for motor vehicles and a double lane in the centre for buses.
This has been necessitated due to the need for a bus system which will operate directly from KwaMashu to Pinetown along the almost completed M5 (Dumisani Makhaye Drive) which will decrease pressure on the N3/N2 junction as well as the taxi ranks in Pinetown and Durban.
These contracts are expected to be completed in December 2015 and the contractor has promised to minimise disruption as far as possible.
The second project is the upgrade and resurfacing of Kings Road, a contract which has been necessitated due to structural problems in the road surface.
The contract was officially started on Monday 4 August and will take approximately five months to complete. However, due to the need to relay some of the substructure, the road will be almost closed to allow for the project to be undertaken with possibly only one lane open.
The contractor has agreed to do the project in three sections being the three CBD blocks from Henwood to Crompton, Crompton to Glenugie and the last being Glenugie to Anderson.
“It is my belief that once these two contracts are completed they will decrease pressure on the roads infrastructure within the CBD and allow for a cleaner traffic flow along these routes,” said Bruce.
