POOR workmanship along Kenneth Kaunda Road (Northway) and Swapo Road (Broadway) have frustrated residents for several weeks. The municipality has dug up the tar on several spots along the busy roads to conduct repairs, but have left the jobs incomplete – which lead to accidents as well as damage to people’s vehicles.
The latest of these repairs involved a leaking pipe at the corner of Kenneth Kaunda Road and Cadogan Drive. Workers had reportedly dug up a stretch of road two weeks ago, repaired the pipe and simply filled the hole with soil.
The heavy traffic soon shifted and compacted the soil, causing several vehicles to damage their tyres on the ever-growing ditch. Michelle Nicolai turned to Facebook to report that her son and ‘numerous other vehicles’ hit this trench along the busy road.
“Hideous workmanship leaving a dangerous trench in a busy road with no warning signs. Bust both front tyres,” she wrote in her post on the Durban North & Umhlanga Community Police Forum: Sector 2 page.
Northglen News met councillor Shaun Ryley at the repair site on Tuesday to find that there was in fact no signage erected to warn motorists. Relatively large pebbles from the debris were also scattered along the road.
“The problem here is that this is a busy main arterial road. There’s lots of traffic. The trench was also tug around a bend, making it virtually impossible for motorists to see the ditch until they are right on top of it. I understand that jobs might not be completed in one day and it would be thus be senseless to tar the trench before repairs have been completed, but then adequate provision needs to be made. The soil needs to be compacted to a suitable standard and signage needs to be put up to warn motorists,” he said.
Ryley added that similar trenches have been dug at the corner of Umhlanaga Rocks Drive and Kenneth Kaunda Road a month ago, as well as the corner of Davallen and Marion Avenues in Glenashley three weeks ago.
Resident, Neil Speres, who lives at the corner of Old Mill Way and Swapo Road, said that the poor workmanship was ‘unacceptable’. “They dug up the road to repair a leaking pipe, filled it with sand and left it for two weeks. By the third day the traffic had eroded the ditch significantly,” he said. Once again no signage had been placed at the site to warn motorists.
According to Speres, a cyclist had to be resuscitated by paramedics after running into the deep trench. It also caused two accidents. The trench was finally filled and completed on Thursday last week – a few days after the resident reported it.
“It is important that people report such issues to the eThekwini Engineering Services (080 131 3013), as they deal with road maintenance as well as leaking water pipes. After reporting the issue, residents also need to follow up to ensure that the issue is dealt with,” said Ryley.
