Facing the daily nightmare of Robert Broom Drive’s traffic congestion continues to anger local motorists.
This nightmare has worsened in the past two years as the narrow single-lane section of the road between Van Oordt Drive and Amaryllis Street, fails dismally to cope with the ever-increasing number of vehicles.
Motorists commuting between the dormitory city and business hubs now have to leave long before sunrise. Yet they still have to contend with kilometre-long tailbacks, a poorly synchronised traffic light and fellow motorists who refuse to obey traffic rules.
“A road network should facilitate the smooth movement of traffic even during peak times,” states Lynn Pannall, DA councillor for Ward 21, which has Robert Broom as its northern boundary.
“Robert Broom has the unfortunate legacy of being placed on the back burner of development in Mogale City. It is the fastest-growing problem in the City. Together with motorists I am growing impatient at the snail’s pace of road network development in the northern suburbs. This is where the development boom is taking place and it stands to reason that this is where network upgrading should be centred. The northern suburbs, such as Noordheuwel, Rangeview, Rant-en-Dal, Pinehaven, Featherbrooke and Ruimsig have transformed but the road network has not kept pace.
“What is harrowing is that the City’s plan for Robert Broom is a piecemeal, phased project with developers being expected to contribute to the cost of widening the section of road adjacent to their developments. Once developers have widened their ‘pieces’ of road, Mogale City will fund the construction of the remaining pieces and in years to come could call this patchwork a dual carriageway.
“After an urgent motion in Council, discussions with officials and in portfolios, requests for pointsmen at intersections by the ward committee, letters and photographs, eight consecutive annual IDP submissions and CPF requests for the widening of Robert Broom, the municipality has indicated that R20 million will be set aside in 2016 for upgrading Robert Broom,” commented the councillor.
“But things still can go wrong. The Johannesburg Metro has been reported to have removed the proposed widening of Wilgerood (between Amaryllis and CR Swart) from its budget. This would mean that even if Robert Broom were to be widened in Mogale City, the bottleneck at Amaryllis would become catastrophic.
“If the network is not upgraded urgently, Mogale City will have to face an exodus of residents who feel under siege and reject the failing road network.”
Pannall requests that residents attend IDP meetings and sign a petition – urging the prioritisation of Robert Broom – that will be in circulation soon.
