Upper Highway’s bridges are going nowhere slowly

TWO bridges in the Upper Highway area, one in Carnation Place off Stockville Road and the other on Ashley Drive in Hillcrest, are not being utilised.

Carnation Place

According to Ward 10 councillor, Tex Collins, the residents of Carnation Place have waited for more than five years for the bridge to be constructed.

“After a protracted delay, construction started in mid 2019 and was projected to be completed by December 2019. This was a completely unrealistic target as no allowance was made for the advent of the summer rains,” said Collins.

Construction was held up for long periods due to inclement weather and was completed earlier this year.

“Unfortunately, the entire project was shut down by the Province because of some environmental issues. eThekwini Municipality was charged for contravening some obscure environmental law and, as a result, a new impact study had to be conducted and the City would have to be fined for this contravention,” said Collins.

He noted that an amount for the fine had yet to be decided upon. The residents of Carnation Place have been forced to use of a temporary causeway alongside the newly constructed bridge.

“With the first heavy rain of the season, it will simply be washed away. The bridge stands uselessly as a monument to the folly of a municipality that simply fails to perform anywhere near normal expectations. The question remains, where was the oversight and monitoring during the construction phase? It is also patently clear that the Province and the Municipality are hardly concerned about the welfare of the residents who use this route on a daily basis,” said Collins.

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Ashley Drive Bridge extension

Collins highlighted that the Ashley Drive bridge extension project has been ongoing for the past 18 months and has not yet been opened to the public. According to John Clarke of Roots Project Management, the developer is ready to commence construction on the roadway to open up the bridge. He said this could take up to three more months to complete.

The construction of the bridge was targeted for completion at the end of 2019. Clarke noted that the developer paid for the upgrade and bridge widening as it formed part of the conditions of establishment for the Emberton Estate development.

“There were many services to relocate by other service providers, so this moved the completion date to March. The final snags were completed after lockdown,” said Clarke.

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“The Ashley Drive bridge is complete, the traffic lights have been installed, road markings in place yet the bridge cannot be used. All this because of a tiny piece of land, for which the municipal Real Estate wants an extortionate amount of money,” said Collins.

The developer received an independent valuation for the piece of land, which runs parallel with Ashley Drive, in front of the existing break pressure tank, and is currently awaiting a response from the Municipality.

“The Municipality wants payment on the slither of land which will remain in the ownership of the Municipality. It (the municipality) wants the original cost of the slither (paid to the previous land holder in 2010) increased by inflation from 2010,” said Clarke.

The land will then be handed over to the Municipality and would remain in the ownership of the Municipality.

“The land in question serves no useful purpose yet the municipality still holds out for payment. If they had any concern for the citizens they could simply cede the land over to the developer with the appropriate conditions and the bridge could be opened. If no solution can be found then the bridge will stand for ever as a very expensive white elephant,” said Collins.

Despite numerous queries sent to the eThekwini Municipality regarding both bridges, no comment was received by the time of going to print.

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting