Plantations HOA calls for four-way stop

THE Plantations Home Owners’ Association have called for the eThekwini Transport Authority and the KZN Department of Transport to upgrade the intersection of Shongweni Road and Hospital Road into a four-way stop.

“Residents exiting the Plantations Estate, to migrate through the intersection on work day mornings and evenings, run an everyday risk of collision with other traffic. They have resorted to using adjacent roads where they do not have to cross directly over the intersection. Recently, we have been experiencing an accident or a near-miss per week at the intersection,” said Ron van Rooyen, the estate manager at Plantations.

A traffic count was conducted by the Department of Transport at the intersection in 2013 but no upgrades or changes were made to the road. Another vehicle count was done on Wednesday, 14 October 2015 by the same company that conducted the initial count. This was paid for by the Plantations Homeowners’ Association. According to the statistics, more than 12 000 cars passed through the area during the 12-hour count. “Currently, the count indicated that approximately 75 per cent of the daily traffic volume migrating through this intersection is made up of general outer-west vehicular traffic,” said van Rooyen.

He also noted that the Estate, containing 704 homes, had been fully developed by 2007 and the rest of the Hillcrest CBD had grown exponentially with new infrastructure as well as the two existing schools.

The Plantations Home Owners’ Association proposed that the intersection outside the estate be developed into a four-way stop. “There are two stop streets already, one along Hospital Road and at the exit to Plantations. We would like for there to be two stop streets added along Shongweni Road as well as traffic calming humps. Then have a yield sign for the cars turning left off Shongweni Road into Hospital Road and making it a left turn only lane,” said van Rooyen.

Ward 10 councillor, Rick Crouch, said:

The problem is that the stretch of road in question is a provincial road and as such I do not have jurisdiction of the controlling department which is the Provincial Department of Transport. I have sent numerous emails to the department with no response. eThekwini will not and cannot spend money on that road because as I said it is a provincial road and any expenditure would be deemed “irregular expenditure” by the Auditor General.

I have been told by Town Planning that during the planning phase of Plantations the plans were approved on condition that should traffic lights or other traffic calming measures become necessary that they would be at the cost of the developer. I was told a few years ago by an Outer West Town Planning manager that there is a signed document to that effect, I have requested a copy of that letter numerous times and have yet to receive it.